Types of Air Ambulance Missions
Neonatal Transfers
Each year Life Flight flies approximately 200 premature babies to specialist hospital care they desperately need.
A premature baby can weigh less than 1kg (the normal birth weight for a
full-term baby is 3.5kg). Their tiny heart and lungs can struggle to
survive and thrive. Fortunately Life Flight’s air ambulances and
Westpac Rescue Helicopter can be equipped with a number of special baby incubators that help keep them safe during their critical
journeys. Find more information on the incubators here.
When Life Flight's nationwide air ambulance service transports a premature baby, we carry a doctor and a specially trained flight nurse.
Baby Nadia had a birth weight of only 965 grams – read Nadia’s story here.
Other Inter-Hospital Patient Transfers
Each year Life Flight flies over 1000 people to specialist hospital care they desperately need via the nationwide air ambulance service.
Every day someone needs medical care or equipment only available at a hospital outside of their local area. Patients flown can have a wide variety of medical conditions, including heart or neurological problems, serious injury, spinal damage or severe burns. Specifically trained flight nurses staff the flights and with critically ill patients a flight doctor and flight nurse skilled in intensive care medicine attend the journey.
Organ or Medical Team Transfers
The air ambulances also fly surgeons between hospitals in emergencies and transport blood or organs if urgently required. Opportunities to harvest organs and transport them to the appropriate hospitals for transplants, as well as coordination of air and ground resources are all vital for this part of the operation.
