The importance of the medical helicopter

One hour after its inauguration, the third medicalized helicopter of the Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), under the Health Department of the Government of the Canary Islands and based in Fuerteventura, carried out its first mission, transporting a patient from the south of the island.

At 10:15 a.m., the SUC health coordinator received a call from a medical centre in Jandía requesting the transfer of a 68‑year‑old man to the General Hospital of Fuerteventura because of a health problem that required urgent specialised care.

Since the SUC’s medicalized ambulance stationed in the south was already transporting another seriously ill patient to the hospital, the SUC nurse coordinator, who was managing the service from the emergency department, decided to activate the medicalized helicopter based at Fuerteventura Airport.