Emergency medical charity Magpas Helimedix, has become the only pre-hospital organisation in the UK to use four intensive care life support machines.

Cambs Times: Magpas Helimedix team with the new life support machineMagpas Helimedix team with the new life support machine (Image: Archant)

The equipment allows medical staff to bring emergency care to the roadside to provide the best critical care for patients in life threatening emergencies.

It will allow Magpas to provide better ventilation to patients they are called out to.

Magpas Helimedix specialist doctors and paramedics can undertake many procedures that would normally be performed in accident and emergency or even intensive treatment units.

However, the charity wanted to do more for their patients and after research they found the highest level life support ventialtor was being successfully used by a pre-hospital service in Switzerland.

Magpas Clinical Director Simon Lewis explains, “This is an essential investment and we have made a huge leap in our capabilities with these ventilators.

“I know this will improve the care we are able to provide patients in life changing situations. I am very excited to about using the Hamilton T1 and making a difference.

“I am also very proud of this organisation for supporting this advance and the clinicians for undertaking extra training in order to use the ventilators. A big thank you to our fundraisers for making this possible.”

He said that for a patient involved in a serious road traffic incident they may suffer major head and chest injuries where doctors need to protect the patient’s brain and lungs before getting them to a major trauma centre.

If the patient is unconscious, the team may decide to anaesthetise and place them on a life support breathing machine.

The new ventilator is so sophisticated that it can adjust itself, breath by breath, to work out how best to provide the life support needed.