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Your Body Changes in High Altitudes

When an air ambulance dispatches to the scene of a crisis, the medical team on board is already gearing up for special precautions they must take and warning signs to spot to help them treat the patient while in flight.  The human body reacts differently when at high altitudes like they achieve in air travel.  Our bodies generally react just fine in flights reaching altitudes up to 12,000 feet above sea level, but that’s on a leisurely flight to a destination.  An air ambulance ride will not take patients to those heights, but they will be moving at a rapid pace so there is an adjustment the medical crew must make.
When an air ambulance takes off with a patient, its sole purpose is to get that patient into the hands of the receiving hospital as quickly and safely as possible.  With sudden changes in pressure from flight, the human body can react with symptoms like middle ear, sinus, and gastrointestinal pain.  In some cases, the patient can get sick and throw up.  The training these flight physicians and paramedics have undergone will help them wade through the aviation physiology and treat the trauma caused by the crisis.  Their effort is to help stabilize the patient by the time they reach the hospital.  Rapid changes in altitude can also give patients joint pain similar to the bends scuba divers experience when surfacing too quickly.
The crew on board the air ambulance is highly trained.  Flight nurses are registered nurses who are normally required to have at least five years of experience in critical care like in the emergency room or ICU.  Flight paramedics are also highly trained and normally hold some sort of pre-hospital trauma life support certification.