Long hauls for Gisborne’s Eastland Rescue Helicopter

Members of the Trust Tairāwhiti Eastland Rescue Helicopter team return to the hangar after a long run that took them to Waikato, then required a diversion to Murupara during their flight home.

Long-run inter-hospital transfers of patients in serious conditions dominated the Trust Tairāwhiti Eastland Rescue Helicopter’s dispatches for the week.

Two road accidents rounded out the mission schedule.

In the seven days from Monday, October 28, the team completed six missions, of which four required the use of night-vision goggles.

For the first, at 12.10am on October 29, they were dispatched to transfer a patient who was in a serious condition after suffering a medical event from Gisborne to Waikato Hospital.

At 1.30am the following morning they carried out an identical mission, a run they repeated at 4pm on Saturday, November 2.

While returning from Waikato on that day, they received an in-air dispatch in response to a trauma event at Murupara where, upon landing, they were stood down.

As a result of that long Saturday run they were covered by the Central North Island-based Greenlea Rescue Helicopter team, who were dispatched from Taupō to a scene near Mōtu, ultimately flying their patient to Gisborne Hospital.

The week’s mission log for the Eastland team was completed on Sunday when they responded to two motor vehicle accidents.

The first (1.20pm) was at Nūhaka, from where they flew a patient in a serious condition to Gisborne Hospital.

At 10.20pm they flew to another accident, this time at Wharekahika/Hicks Bay. The patient was again flown in a serious condition to Gisborne Hospital.