DRF Luftrettung publish half-year review

This represents an eight-per-cent year-on-year increase compared with the same period in the previous year. Cardiac arrests were the leading cause for callouts during the six-month period, constituting over one fifth (21 per cent) of all missions. Neurological emergencies were the second-largest reason for callouts, also constituting nearly a fifth of all missions (18 per cent). Other emergency types included fall injuries (11 per cent) and traffic incidents (11 per cent).

DRF Luftrettung also reported that a fifth (20 per cent) of all missions from the 11 HEMS bases which operate on a 24-hour basis took place during night-time hours.

In addition, DRF Luftrettung’s four hoist bases in Bautzen, Dortmund, Freiburg and Nuremberg were also busy, recording 69 hoist missions in the first six months of 2022. The organization’s international repatriation air ambulance also carried out 115 missions around the world during the period, visiting 33 different countries.

DRF Luftrettung previously reported that it had received 37,834 alerts for HEMS services in 2021.

Milestones reached in the first half of 2022

DRF Luftrettung also announced that it had made progress with several important developments in the first half of 2022.

In mid-May, the HEMS base in Dortmund began operating the first civil helicopter in North Rhine-Westphalia to be equipped with a rescue hoist. Its first mission came just a few days later when a worker needed to be rescued from inaccessible terrain following a forestry accident.

A ‘new concept for airborne water rescue via hoist’ was also recently introduced at the HEMS base in Freiburg, just in time for the summer season, enabling crew to be fully prepared to deal with drowning or swimming-related accidents in bodies of water in the surrounding area.

The non-profit is also preparing to launch its new internal pilot training initiative and has begun a joint project to develop a hoist simulator.

Dr Krystian Pracz, Chairperson of the DRF Luftrettung’s Executive Board, said: “The high mission figures once again underscore the important role that air rescue plays in providing comprehensive emergency medical care to people in Germany. In the first half of the year, we were also able, once again, to achieve our aim of consistently driving the ongoing development of air rescue.

“One important milestone in this is our very own pilot training. The internal preparation work has been running at full speed in recent months and is now entering the final sprint towards the finish line. We were also able to reveal the start of a ground-breaking collaboration project with the manufacturer Reiser Simulation and Training recently to develop a hoist simulator, which we expect to launch in spring 2023 and which will offer entirely new possibilities for hoist training.”