Ten years of saving lives a reason to celebrate Warrnambool's HEMS4 helicopter

Paramedics, along with two of the patients who owe their lives their work, were at Warrnambool's airport to celebrate the milestone on Wednesday - the exact date the service was launched in 2009.

The helicopter came into service five days later on July 1, 2009.

Over the last decade, crews have logged 5500 flying hours and flown 2700 mission - from car accidents to ocean rescues and life-threatening medical emergencies.

Ambulance Victoria's manager of air operations Anthony De Wit said the versatility of the HEMS 4 had seen it respond to cases as far away as Robe, Big Desert in WA and to winch injured bushwalkers and rock climbers from The Grampians.

Warrnambool's Stephen Lucas, who was on the helicopter campaign committee for 13 years, the last five as its chair, said there was so much support in the community for the service.

"It's a victory of the people over bureaucracy. The community convinced the government."

"In the end they gave in because the community was so strongly for it."

Hamilton's Amanda Gibbins doesn't remember anything about the head-on crash which put her in a coma for six days in 2011.

She was critically injured and paramedics were able to give her a blood transfusion on the flight to Melbourne after they'd radioed ahead and asked police to get some from the nearby hospital and meet them at the scene.

Ms Gibbins, who lived at Heywood at the time, was on her way to work at a hair salon in Portland when the then 18-year-old's 1994 Mitsubishi Lancer and a four-wheel-drive on the highway collided.

"No airbags, small little car. There's not much of it left," she said.

"I'd broken my pelvis in eight different places. I had bleeding and bruising to the brain, broken my wrist and my ankle, and dislocated my ankle. Had a lot of facial injuries.

"They had to bring blood to the site because my injuries were so severe, I'd lost so much blood,"

Ms Gibbins was put in an induced coma at the scene, and after six days was moved to the intensive care unit at The Alfred for four weeks.

It took about three days to completely come out of the coma and start remembering things.

"Because I was on my way to work when the accident happened, when I came out of my induced coma I was saying 'I need to go to work, I'm working today'. I wasn't aware that I was asleep for six or seven days," she said.

All up she was in hospital for four months, including a stint at the Epworth rehabilitation centre.

The other driver, who sustained minor injuries, did come to visit Ms Gibbins in the hospital.

She has now recovered from her injuries, and just eight weeks ago she gave birth to her first child, Jagger.

Ms Gibbins knows first hand just how valuable the HEMS4 service has been to the region.

Team manager for HEMS 4 Peter Jenkins was on duty the day of the accident. He said soon after that accident they began to carry blood on the helicopter.

"The way we used to getting it delivered form a hospital by police and of course that wasn't always possible," he said.

In the past 10 years, the HEMS4 has provided blood transfusions to 16 critically ill patients.

With just minutes to spare as daylight faded, Warrnambool's Clark Smock was winched to safety after his boat flipped 70 kilometres out to sea in 2017.

"It's a fantasitc service. They more than likely saved my life," Mr Smock said.

"I was going to end up spending the night on the boat, even though it was a very pleasant evening, just the exposure and all that kind of thing is what kills people in the Bass Strait," he said.

He had the right gear on to best weather the night, but he said you "just never know what's going to happen out there".

"It was great to see them come. They came over me so quickly. This thing can do 280km/h," he said.

Mr Smock had just caught a couple of blue-eye, a couple of gem fish and a rare Patagonian toothfish. "It was very rare, in fact I didn't even know what it was when I caught it and I used to teach marine science," he said.

"The sun was getting low and I went to start the engine and nothing happened and boat started to roll."

He managed to grab his Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons and set it off.

Mr Smock, a commercial fisherman who had been involved in rescue services back in his native America, said the sea was quite calm that night.

"I knew my drift. I was going to reach the coast the way it was going, I was going to be off Portland or Port Macdonnell by dawn," he said.

"I had some raw fish, and I'm used to raw food so I didn't mind a bit of sashimi. I had water and had my exposure suit on. I was pretty right, but I was pretty happy to see them."

His upturned boat showed up near Robe about two months later, but it was "cactus".

The ordeal hasn't stopped him heading out to see to fish in his new boat.

Mr De Wit said he still remembers the first two cases the HEMS4 was ever called to, and the one that sticks in his mind was being called to a large cargo ship about 100km off Mount Gambier to winch someone off.

MICA flight paramedic acting team member Matt Davidson has worked for the air ambulance in Victoria since 1994, spending 10 years at Essendon and seven at Gippsland before moving to the Warrnambool base.

"To have such a big area not covered by a helicopter was quite surprising,"he said.

A BBQ will be held at the base from 9-11am on Sunday so the community can celebrate the milestone.

Read more:

Clark Smock recounts rescue ordeal

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