Why wasn't Sharon airlifted to hospital?

[Scurrilous]

According to initial explanations, ambulance left on way to Jerusalem hospital before proposal to use chopper was raised; doctor concerned carrying Sharon to helicopter would have worsened his condition

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3195358,00.html

<snip>

A series of weighty questions surrounds the serious deterioration in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condition Wednesday evening.

"One of the main questions is why was Sharon not airlifted to hospital using the helipad located near his private residence, the Sycamore Ranch, and why was he not taken to the closer Soroka hospital in Be'er Sheva, instead of to Hadassah Ein kerem in Jerusalem?

The paramedic accompanying the prime minister on a regular basis noticed Sharon appeared to be dazed around 9:20 p.m. Wednesday. The PM's doctor, Shlomo Segev, was promptly called in to the Sycamore Ranch from his central Israel home. Following an examination, Segev decided Sharon should be taken Hadassah Ein Kerem by an intensive care ambulance."

<snip>

"According to initial explanations offered, the ambulance left on its way to Jerusalem even before the proposal to airlift Sharon was raised. During the ride, the doctor and accompanying paramedic were concerned transferring Sharon to a helicopter would require needless shaking. At this point, Sharon was fully conscious, but his condition deteriorated as the convoy approached Jerusalem.

Sharon's former personal doctor, Bolek Goldman, said the decision to evacuate Sharon by ambulance and not by chopper was "the right decision taken by the right people…the difference in times between arrival by helicopter and by ambulance was not significant."

[Warpy]

1. That depends on a lot of things

and sometimes land travel is quicker, especially if the helicopter is in use by another patient. Also, the hospital may have been determined by the advanced services available. Rural hospitals usually can't deal with massive cerebral hemorrhage.

[uppityperson]

2. altitude changes can be dangerous

especially if you are critical, or bleeding.

[GrumpyGreg]

6. Thanks for that info---I didn't realise that!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. That poison takes time to work and disappear. Ask the KGB.

[havocmom]

4. Helicopter makes an easy target?

Traffic offers some cover.

[EST]

5. Could't find one big enough.

[Scurrilous]

7. Hospital director: Letting Sharon go to Negev farm was negligent

<snip>

"Several senior doctors raised a host of questions Thursday about the standard of treatment Ariel Sharon has received over the last two weeks, with the director of a large hospital telling Haaretz that according to the media reports on Sharon's medical treatment, he fears "there was indescribable negligence."

The questions cover the period from Sharon's first stroke two weeks ago to his arrival Wednesday night at Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, where he is being treated for a severe stroke and cerebral hemorrhage. They pertain to the supervision over Sharon's physical state, following the blood-thinning medicine he received after his first hospitalization.

Such supervision is essential, as these medicines could cause a cerebral hemorrhage, like the one Sharon suffered. Questions were also raised about the dosage he received.

"Yitzhak Rabin was not wearing a bulletproof vest that could have protected him from the murderers' bullets, and now, 10 years later, Sharon was not given the required medical treatment that could have saved him," the hospital director said. "Israel has not learned the lesson from Rabin's murder, and thus lost two prime ministers because of inadequate protection - one from weapons, the other from illness. I cannot understand how the prime minister could have been sent to stay in an isolated farm, more than an hour away from the hospital he was supposed to be treated in, two weeks after a stroke and one night before a heart procedure he was afraid of."

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