{{Short description|Emergency evacuation for medical reasons}} [[File:Agusta A109K2 Slovensko (25).jpg|thumb|An AW109 helicopter evacuates a patient from the Tatra mountains in Slovakia]]
'''Medical evacuation''', often shortened to '''medevac'''<ref name="MW">{{Cite web|url = http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medevac|title = Medevac|access-date = 27 January 2012|publisher = Merriam-Webster|date = 2012}}</ref> or '''medivac''',<ref name="MW" /> is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to patients requiring evacuation or transport using medically equipped air ambulances, helicopters and other means of emergency transport including ground ambulance and maritime transfers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Emergency medical evacuations |url=https://www.uhcglobal.com/en/resources/business-insights/emergency-medical-evacuation |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=www.uhcglobal.com |language=en}}</ref>
Examples include civilian EMS vehicles, civilian aeromedical helicopter services, and military air ambulances. This term also covers the transfer of patients from the battlefield to a treatment facility or from one treatment facility to another by medical personnel, such as from a local hospital to another medical facility which has adequate medical equipment.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kelso |first=Stirling |date=2024-03-19 |title=This company protects travelers, wherever they may venture |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/91037411/global-rescue-most-innovative-companies-2024 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251212203108/https://www.fastcompany.com/91037411/global-rescue-most-innovative-companies-2024 |archive-date=2025-12-12 |access-date=2026-02-11 |work=Fast Company |language=en-US}}</ref>
==History== [[File:USAF R-5 medevac Korean War.jpg|thumb|USAF Sikorsky R-5 Helicopter evacuates casualties during the Korean War]] [[Image:Medevac mission, Balad Air Base, Iraq.jpg|thumb|An aeromedical evacuation of injured patients by a C-17 from Balad, Iraq to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, in 2007]] The first medical transport by air was recorded in Serbia in the autumn of 1915 during the First World War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/125/Dru%C5%A1tvo/1516279/Veliki+rat+-+avijacija.html|title=Veliki rat - Avijacija|publisher=RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of Serbia|website=rts.rs}}</ref> One of the ill soldiers in that first medical transport was Milan Rastislav Štefánik, a Slovak pilot-volunteer who was flown to safety by French aviator Louis Paulhan.<ref>''L'homme-vent'', special issue of ''L'Ami de Pézenas'', 2010</ref>
The United States Army used this lifesaving technique in Burma toward the end of World War II with Sikorsky R-4B helicopters. The first helicopter rescue was by 2nd Lt Carter Harman, in Japanese-held Burma, who had to make several hops to get his Sikorsky YR-4B to the 1st Air Commando Group's secret airfield in enemy territory and then made four trips from there between April 25 and 26 to recover the American pilot and four injured British soldiers, one at a time.<ref>Fries, Patrick. ''When I Have Your Wounded: The Dustoff Legacy (DVD)'', Arrowhead Films, 2013.</ref> The first medivac under fire happened in Manila in 1945 when five pilots evacuated 75–80 soldiers one or two at a time.<ref>Conner, Roger. ''Medevac From Luzon'', Air & Space Magazine, July 2010.</ref>
== See also == * Aeromedical evacuation * Air ambulance * Air medical services * Casualty evacuation * "Medevac bill" (Australia, 2019) * ''Medivac'', Australian television series * Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{Wiktionary|medevac}} * [http://www.aams.org Association of Air Medical Services] * [http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/44971/landing-in-hell-army-medevac-today Landing in Hell: Army Medevac Today] - slideshow by ''Life magazine''
Category:Air ambulance services Category:Critical emergency medicine Category:Military medicine *