36 | IN PROFILE
Fig. 1: Primary deployment in the high mountains close to the Norwegian border on 11 August 2011 (Photographs: B. Ulmer)
Air rescue in Sweden – the Gällivare rescue service On 11 August 2011, the rescue service from Gällivare, Sweden, was called out to the high mountains on the Norwegian border. The difficult weather conditions made it impossible to touch down right next to the casualty, so the pilots decided to drop the medical crew at cloud level. The emergency doctor and HEMS crew member then had to walk around a kilometre in order to reach the casualty, who was located in the fog behind the helicopter, above the snowfield. Plexus anaesthesia (local anaesthetic) was administered for the casualty’s dislocated shoulder. The casualty and rescue team then had to walk down the mountain until they were below the cloud line and could be picked up by the Dauphin helicopter.. Authors: Bastian Ulmer Medical Director Intensive Care Unit & Emergency Physician, Gällivare Hospital, Norrbotten, Sweden bastian.ulmer@nll.se Anders Larsson Intensive Care Nurse anders.larsson@nll.se Sara Turtola Intensive Care Nurse, sara.turtola@nll.se Jan Sjödin Intensive Care Nurse jan.sjodin@nll.se
The early days Sweden’s most northerly rescue helicopter base has been using an AS 365 N3 Dauphin helicopter since 1 December 2010. The Dauphin was brought in to replace the old Sikorsky S 76 A from Norrlandsflyg AB after 12 years of service. Norrlandsflyg AB, the company that originally operated the base, was founded in 1961 by Knut Hedström, who set up the company headquarters in Gällivare in Norrbotten, Sweden’s most northerly county. At first, the Norrlandsflyg crews and their two Cessna 185 aircraft (which were fitted with floats for landing on water) flew tourists and locals to remote moutain lakes for fishing expeditions, delivered provisions to the Sami people and supported businesses and government authorities by transporting staff around Sweden’s largest and most extensive province. Thanks to the high demand for flights, the company grew rapidly. By 1969, the Nor-
rlandsflyg fleet comprised of three hydroplanes and a Bell 47J helicopter. Over the years, the fleet was called out on SAR missions in the mountains time and time again. The region offered enormous potential in terms of hydroelectric power and as more and more development work took place and more and more workers came to the region, the number of accidents increased.
Official appointment of Norrlandsflyg Norrlandsflyg was officially asked to take over the air rescue service for Norrbotten in 1970 – the same year that the ADAC Air Rescue took on its service in Germany. The first rescue missions were carried out using a Bell 206 Ranger, but at the end of the 1970s this helicopter was replaced by a Sikorsky S55T. The 1980s saw the introduction of an AS 350 followed by an AS 360, and in 1992 the first Sikorsky S76 joined the rescue fleet.
3 · 2011 I Vol. 1 I AirRescue I 36