Chopper Rescue - Series 2 (ATOM Study Guide)

Chopper Rescue is genuine life and death human drama featuring one of the world's most professional and effective emergency medical services.

The series follows the work of the doctors, paramedics, rescue officers and air crews employed by Emergency Management Queensland. They are on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

They cover huge distances across Queensland, from the remote outback and tropics to the outermost limits of the Great Barrier Reef.

The crews are trained to handle any medical emergency and routinely conduct dramatic rescues. Their rapid response is often the difference between life and certain death of their patients.

In many parts of Queensland, emergency medical care is eight to ten hours away by road. Doctors are in short supply and the small country hospitals have limited facilities to deal with major medical trauma.

In the remote outback, vehicle and agricultural accidents, and medical emergencies such as heart attacks and fractures, become potentially fatal because of the great distances to adequate care.

The crews of Chopper Rescue are often the only lifeline available when patients need treatment in a major hospital.

Working in difficult, remote locations, or in cramped conditions in mid air, the doctors and paramedics safely deliver patients to hospital and along the way deliver hospital-standard care.

Curriculum links

This study guide is mainly aimed at middle- and upper-secondary school levels, with relevance to English, Media Studies, History, SOSE/HSIE, Personal and Interpersonal Development, Outdoor Education, Careers Education, Environmental Studies, Health and Medical Science. It may also be relevant to Maths (see Episode 1 activities for an example).