Our high-flyin’ hi-tech life saver!


Heroes and heroines: the Irish Community Air Ambulance has taken delivery of a Leonardo 109S helicopter. It is the fastest civilian helicopter in the world and is ideally suited to the provision of a rural Helicopter Emergency Medical Service

The Irish Community Air Ambulance has taken delivery of a Leonardo 109S helicopter. It is the fastest civilian helicopter in the world and is ideally suited to the provision of a rural Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS).
The charity heli-med service has responded to almost 1,000 incidents from its base in Rathcoole, Co. Cork since it was established in July 2019. Cardiac arrests account for the most incidents so far this year, followed by road traffic collisions and farming accidents.
The new aircraft, which goes into full service from now offers more speed, greater patient comfort and it has the capacity to take on more fuel increasing endurance and range.
The helicopter can travel up to 300 kilometres an hour. It is capable of flying the length of the country from Mizen to Malin Head in a little over 90 minutes. The same journey would take eight hours by road.
Irish Community Air Ambulance Chief Executive Mícheál Sheridan says: “We are often called to the most serious of incidents, in these situations where you’re dealing with a critical patient, the small gains can have the greatest benefit to the patient’s comfort and outcomes.
“This new helicopter offers more speed but it also has additional room at the rear. That means that we can transport adult patients more comfortably and we also have space for an additional medic on board, if necessary.”
The Community Air Ambulance works in tandem with the National Ambulance Service and brings patients to the hospital that best suits their life-saving needs. The Mater Hospital in Dublin and Cork University Hospital (CUH) are the two major centres for the provision of trauma care in Ireland.

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