With the infrastructure in ruins, roads clogged, and the port disrupted, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft provide vital rescue capabilities to military and civilian responders in Haiti.

The nation's association of medevac operators is helping to coordinate aircraft to mount an effective response.

"The morning after the earthquake struck Haiti, AAMS sent out a request to its members asking them to respond if they were willing or able to provide their services as part of the disaster-relief effort, and what kind of services and/or equipment they could offer," said Dawn Mancuso, CEO/Executive Director of the Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS). The organization is coordinating with U.S.-based air-medical programs to offer medevac services. "We also reached out to the federal agencies involved, provided them with the list of providers and their services and functioned as a liaison in this massive multi-pronged effort," Mancuso said.
As an example of island-based activity, Aero Ambulancia, an international member of AAMS, has mobilized its fleet of four fully medically staffed and equipped helicopters to provide disaster-relief assistance to the people of Haiti. Aero Ambulancia, the only company based in the Dominican Republic to offer this service, is flying in doctor-paramedic teams and is making all of its company resources available to the international disaster-response effort in Haiti.

"We've been transporting people ever since the quake," Aero Ambulancia's administrator Charity Peguero told DOTmed News on Friday. "[Thursday] we transported two Haitian patients, a 30- year-old with ankle and shoulder trauma; and another patient, 34, with thorax and cervical trauma."

In addition, air-medical service providers in the United States have been sending crews into the areas hardest hit by the earthquake, while other air-medical operators say they stand ready to provide services on a per-request basis.

For example, two patients from Haiti have arrived at the University of Michigan Health Service (UMHS), transported by Survival Flight fixed-wing aircraft. They are now receiving advanced specialized care from UMHS teams, the institution reports. The patients have injuries that require complex care that's available at few medical centers. UMHS works with the Association of Air Medical Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to offer this service together with its aviation contractor, Pentastar Aviation.

"The Health System community, along with the rest of the University of Michigan, is eager to extend its reach and help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti," said Tony Denton, chief operating officer of U-M Hospitals & Health Centers, who heads the UMHS task force.

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