TWO patients were simultaneously transferred from Heyuan City in Guangdong Province to Shenzhen by helicopter on Friday afternoon, marking the first case in Guangdong in which a twin-engine helicopter was used to carry out air rescue and successfully transport two patients, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported Saturday.

The patients were injured in a car accident on their way back to Shenzhen on Feb. 10 and were sent to a local hospital in Heyuan.

According to a preliminary diagnosis, the 49-year-old female patient suffered from fractures to the left transverse processes of the first and second lumbars, and the 65-year-old male patient had a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Due to limited medical resources, the local hospital recommended that the patients seek treatment at Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University in Shenzhen, which is equipped with better medical equipment and medical resources.

The linear distance between Heyuan and Shenzhen is more than 260 kilometers and takes more than three hours to drive. Moreover, as people were starting to return from their hometowns to work after the Spring Festival, ground travel between the two cities would take even longer time.

The patients applied for the helicopter rescue service through Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance Co. Ltd. Subsequently, an Airbus EC135 helicopter was arranged by Shenzhen Heli-eastern Aviation Co.

However, as the helicopter was flying over Longmen County of Huizhou City on Friday morning, the visibility dropped sharply due to bad weather in the mountainous area, so the crew had to return to Shenzhen.

Considering that helicopters can’t fly at night and that the patients needed to receive timely treatment, the crew flew to Heyuan again at 1:49 p.m. that day after confirming the route conditions.

The helicopter took off from Heyuan at 4:40 p.m. and landed at Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University in Bao’an District at 5:56 p.m. The rescue, which would have taken more than three hours for ground transportation, took only 76 minutes.

The two patients were the eighth and ninth patients to be transferred to the hospital by air transport, according to Zhang Jianhua, director of the medical department of Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University, which has a helipad.

(Zhang Yu)