37000 Feet

Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System

Air ambulance helicopter pilot reported that a patient; possibly injured while cooking methamphetamine; may not have been properly decontaminated prior to transport.

Narrative:

During patient transport; hospital staff advised crew that patient had been burned in a butane explosion and was possibly cooking methamphetamine. I was advised by the medical crew that the patient was decontaminated by hospital staff. After flight; aircraft; equipment and personnel were further decontaminated. At no time did the crew smell or believe contaminant was still present. The decontamination after the flight was done out of an exercise of caution and not [because] of any chemical discovery. After the flight; during a clinical review of the medical patient record; the medical director further interviewed the crew and determined that a complete decontamination was most likely not completed. This leads me to believe that there is a possibility that hazardous material may have been on the patient during transport.

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web www.37000feet.com

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air ambulance helicopter pilot reported that a patient; possibly injured while cooking methamphetamine; may not have been properly decontaminated prior to transport.

Narrative: During patient transport; hospital staff advised crew that patient had been burned in a butane explosion and was possibly cooking methamphetamine. I was advised by the medical crew that the patient was decontaminated by hospital staff. After flight; aircraft; equipment and personnel were further decontaminated. At no time did the crew smell or believe contaminant was still present. The decontamination after the flight was done out of an exercise of caution and not [because] of any chemical discovery. After the flight; during a clinical review of the medical patient record; the Medical Director further interviewed the crew and determined that a complete decontamination was most likely not completed. This leads me to believe that there is a possibility that Hazardous Material may have been on the patient during transport.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.