For the sixth consecutive year, Michaël Miraglia takes us aboard the only helicopter-borne medical service in Belgium: the Center Medical Heliporté (CMH). These emergency heroes, aboard their helicopter, carry out nearly 1,500 missions each year, bringing help to people in danger throughout the country. But what is really going on behind the scenes? How do these elite medical teams experience this extraordinary commitment on a daily basis? To find out, we met Romain Betz, emergency doctor at CMH.
When Romain Betz is asked what motivated him to become an emergency doctor, he smiles. “It all started during my medical studies, through first aid courses”he says. This first contact with emergency gave him a taste for the unexpected and for rescue. He then became a volunteer paramedic, juggling between his studies and emergency interventions, until this passion irreversibly led him towards specialization in emergency medicine.
His journey led him to the CMH, a unique medical service in Belgium where we work off the beaten track, aboard a helicopter: “It gives something a little extraordinary, a bit of an original dimension”. For Romain Betz, it is “the challenge” and “the unexpected” that attract him, the desire to find himself alone in the face of complex cases and to take on daily challenges. “Rescuing patients outside the hospital is one of the most beautiful aspects of our job”he explains.
A typical day: between intervention and preparation
The daily life of an emergency doctor at CMH is far from monotonous. Romain Betz describes two different types of days: those spent in the hospital, and those in the helicopter. When he is on call at the hospital, he starts his day at 8 a.m., taking transmission from the night shift and managing new admissions, while remaining ready to go on SMUR intervention at any time. “It’s sometimes not easy because you have to be ready to be able to drop everything immediately. You have two minutes after the call to leave. So that requires not engaging in sterile tasks or interventions, that we cannot let go immediately. We must always try to ensure that our colleagues are aware of the patients we are treating in case we have to leave and that we can follow up on them.”he said.
The days on the helicopter are a little different: on board the “Mike”, the teams wait for calls from 112. Between two missions, Romain takes advantage of the time to take care of his administrative tasks, because since last May, he has also took over the medical direction of the CMH. But as soon as the alert is given, everything accelerates. “Responsiveness is crucial”he specifies.
Multidisciplinary teams
In the helicopter, the CMH teams are made up of three people: the pilot, an emergency nurse and the emergency doctor. “The nurse wears a double hat, he is both a caregiver and a flight assistant, guaranteeing safety throughout the journey”explains Romain Betz. To occupy this position, the nurse must follow specific training, which includes theoretical and practical modules, as well as simulations on a flight simulator. This training is essential to guarantee flight safety and assist the pilot if necessary. This role is crucial, as the helicopter only has one pilot on board.
During missions, teams are often confronted with recurring cases such as chest pain suspected of being heart attacks, dyspnea or multiple trauma following road accidents. These situations require absolute responsiveness and precision to stabilize patients before transport to the hospital. Coordination with other emergency services is also essential: teams sometimes have to join an ambulance already on site, with paramedics to lend a hand.
Urgency is present in every aspect of this profession, and the situations encountered can sometimes be extremely poignant. Romain remembers an infanticide in Soumagne, “one of the most dramatic episodes of my career”he said. But there are also funny moments, like this time when they landed in a cloud of dust, no longer seeing anything around them. “Fortunately, the pilot had prepared the landing well”he adds, laughing.
An authentic look at the emergency
The new season of “112 Emergency Helicopter” immerses us in ever more poignant and moving interventions: a child in anaphylactic shock, an explosion in a company with missing people, or even a race against time to save a cyclist in cardiac arrest . Each time, crucial decisions are made, sometimes in extreme situations. The series makes us discover not only the humanity of these professionals, but also the complexity of each intervention and the strength of teamwork.
Watch “112 Hélico d’urgence”, every Sunday from November 10 at 7:50 p.m. on RTL tvi and in streaming on RTL play.
michaël miraglia 112 Emergency helicopter
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