Care Delivery in Patient Transport: A Clinical Reference and Guide to Physiology, Stabilization, and Crew Decision-Making for Flight Paramedics

By Ramon C. Henson MD

Assess the Risk, Secure the Airway, Call the Mission Ready - Before Wheels-Up

Built for the flight paramedic, critical care transport nurse, and transport physician who must decide, alone and under time pressure, whether a critically ill patient can survive the move, this reference connects transport physiology and confined-space constraint to the decisions made before wheels-up and in flight. It moves from crew resource management and platform selection through organ-system critical care in transit and into the equipment and handoff infrastructure that sustain consistent practice, applying a five-part Readiness Check at forty-six decision points indexed in a closing compendium.

Trap-logic call-outs for the presentation that looks stable but isn't turn physiology into the specific action you take at the stretcher.

From the Referral Call to the Final Handoff, You Will

- Translate altitude physiology into pre-flight readiness - Boyle's law-driven pneumothorax expansion and hypoxemia risk resolved into concrete go or no-go checks.
- Secure the airway your cabin will actually let you manage - video laryngoscopy, bougie-first technique, and a failed-airway sequence sized to confined space.
- Troubleshoot the device-dependent patient - IABP, VAD, and ECMO alarm logic that tells you whether to escalate support or check the cannula first.
- Catch shock before the monitor does - compensated-shock recognition and the massive transfusion trigger you don't wait on hypotension to confirm.
- Manage the neuro-critical and stroke patient in motion - intracranial pressure crisis response and blood pressure targets that flip once thrombolytics are given.
- Deliver the baby you didn't plan to - precipitous delivery readiness and ductal-dependent congenital heart disease recognition before the ductus closes.
- Apply the Transport Readiness System at the exact decision point - a five-part Readiness Check built into every chapter and indexed for rapid mid-mission lookup.

Carry the judgment this specialty runs on into every mission you fly or drive.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1105035492
• ISBN13: 9781105035494
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Ramon C. Henson
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.5" x 11.0"