Someone I was just conversing with brought up fire and EMS in rural areas.
As an EMT, here are two things I know:
- Time is everything, while the idea of the "golden hour" is subject to critiques for failing to account for the heterodynamic nature of trauma injuries, it's not disputed that rapid response to trauma and cardiovascular injuries is conducive to a greater survival rate.
- In rural and lower tier suburban rings, which a lot of people live in because of car culture, there are often no hospitals close, and there are almost never Level I trauma centers or heart hospitals. Small hospitals have to fly every severe trauma or STEMI patient that comes there way (assuming the bird isn't grounded for one of many things the FAA grounds helicopters for, in which case you're going by ground ambulance).
This fucking sucks.