Air ambulance crew on standby for Christmas Day

Crews launched 12 times between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve last December

Thu, 23 Dec, 2021 - 20:00

Sean Murray

Donnagh Verling is the chief pilot for the Cork-based Irish Community Air Ambulance.

And he’s working Christmas Day this year.

“I drew the short straw,” he laughs. “But in a previous life, I was in the military and my wife is a nurse. So it’s not uncommon you’d be working on a Christmas day.”

Like thousands of others around the country, on Christmas Day he will be getting up as normal and heading out to work.

And, like his colleagues in healthcare and other areas, it could be a day as busy as any other.

“As a rule, Christmas day is probably a bit quieter,” he said. “But we’re available regardless.”

If somebody is involved in a road traffic incident, or they’re kicked by a bull or fall off a ladder, those kinds of incidents don’t care whether Santa comes down the chimney or not.

Ireland’s only charity-funded Air Ambulance operates out of Rathcoole in Cork.

It stands ready to respond to serious incidents and medical emergencies 365 days a year.

Last December, crews launched 12 times between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve; the missions to places in Cork, Clare, Kerry, Limerick, and Waterford cost around €42,000 over that one-week period.

Each helicopter mission costs around €3,500. So far this year, it has been tasked by the National Ambulance Service to 468 incidents.

Mr Verling said: “I think overall we’ve had 700 calls this year that we’ve responded to. That's an average of two a day.

“The aircraft is available for a 10-hour period. And it tends to move with the daylight.

"In the summertime, we start a little later and would deal more with incidents in the evening time."

In the wintertime there’s obviously less hours of sunlight so we’d start earlier.

The incidents they respond to can range from cardiac arrests to road traffic crashes to farming incidents.

Over one-third of all incidents are in Cork, while Kerry, Tipperary, and Clare have all seen an increase in taskings in 2021 compared to last year.

When the crew arrives in the morning, they check in on a number of factors such as the weather that day, and any issues they need to be aware of such as problems at a landing site or a particular procedure or treatment not available at a particular hospital that day.

“If someone rings 999, it goes to a centralised call service,” Mr Verling explained.

Irish Community Air Ambulance chief pilot Donnagh Verling. Picture: Brian Lougheed.

The person who answers the call will ask a number of questions and, depending on the answers to those questions, it will automatically trigger the need for the air ambulance to attend the scene and, if it’s in the general Munster area, they will likely get the call.

“The military provide a similar service in Athlone,” he said. “And the Coast Guard also provides these services.”

The crew onboard the helicopter will be trained National Ambulance Service personnel who can attend to the patient when called out, and also care for the patient enroute to hospital if the situation arises.

What I do is drive a slightly different, much faster and much more flexible ambulance.

"It might be the case we could be down in Caherciveen and it’s decided the best option is to bring the patient to Dublin." Mr Verling said. "If that’s the case, then we do it.”

Reliant on donations to survive, Irish Community Air Ambulance recently launched an initiative asking supporters and businesses to donate in the run-up to Christmas.

Each donation made through the organisation’s website lights a virtual star, and supporters can leave a message for the crew, or light a star in honour of a loved one.

“The fact is our service is reliant on the very generous donations we get in order to keep going,” Mr Verling said.

“It’s an expensive way to travel but you can’t put a price on getting the appropriate level of care to the appropriate person at the appropropriate time.”

The pilot recalled an incident the crew attended out at Loop Head. The neighbour of the patient they were attending to remarked that he’s “much rather have this service than broadband”.

“We bring that flexibility,” he added. “There are so many fabulous places to live but you are a long way from appropriate healthcare if something does go wrong.”

If it’s the Beara Peninsula, we can get there from the middle of Munster in 25 minutes.

He has one message for Irish Examiner readers this Christmas.

“Other than to wish my friends and family a very Merry Christmas, just to say I’m working Christmas day and so are lots of others — nurses, doctors, and gardaí.

"And from my former life in the Defence Forces, some who are working aren’t even in the country. So just to recognise that and wish them all a Merry Christmas.”