MEDICAL HELICOPTER

At any time, in any place, sometimes collectively, agents of traumatic, toxic, bacteriological and virological aggression etc. cause loss of life, heavy hospitalisation and disabling after-effects. Faced with these premature deaths and undeserved complications, emergency medicine, through the techniques it has mastered and the organisation of time and space it has been able to put in place to use them, has been enriched over the last half-century by the invention of the helicopter. The heliborne health function, which has developed significantly, is more than just a new therapeutic weapon, with its indications, dosage, iatrogeny, etc. It is also an important tool in the field of health care. It is, in fact, a new element in the technical, diagnostic and therapeutic platform of a country's health system. The medical helicopter gives more chances of survival, less risk of aggravation to more remote populations, isolated from the vital health resources available today. Helicopter-based medicine aims to exploit this resource. Professor L.'s early collaborator. Lareng, founder of the SAMU, Christian Virenque became involved very early on in the development of the medical helicopter at the SAMU 31. Creator of the university certificate of Helicopter Medical Transport, he was at the origin of the HELIMED congress, an event that brings together civilian and military practitioners specialising in helicopter medicine.