Air rescue

As we design the ADAC magazine "Deins Meins Unsers" for the Württemberg ADAC, we travelled to Ulm today to visit “Christoph 22”, the ADAC rescue helicopter. Alex, Daniela and I set off together with two cameras and a recording device and tried to capture all the emotions, impressions and information of the day. The main focus was on the title character, Claudia Reich, who is a sergeant major in the German Armed Forces. She herself has already been on five foreign missions with the Bundeswehr, including in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Niger. At home in Germany, she manned the ambulance, worked in the emergency room of the Bundeswehr hospital in Ulm or flew with “Christoph 22”.

As a paramedic and photographer, I was able to accompany the crew on five missions in the helicopter. Here, the journey to the patient is even more exciting and faster than in the ambulance. We are about 50 m above the ground, from above we can see houses, paths, people, cars, everything seems incredibly clear and uncluttered. We find the supermarket – now we see an ambulance. The fire brigade has already blocked off the supermarket car park. We turn round again, Claudia opens the door. We radio again, then Christian, the emergency doctor, pushes the door open behind us. We make sure that there really isn’t anyone under the helicopter. Next to us we descend for metres, two firemen wave down below, the wind is blowing and it’s loud, but the helmet muffles the noise. We touch down. Just one jump, Christian and Claudia run off with the emergency rucksack – slightly bent over – the rotor blades are still turning. We go into the supermarket, where a patient is lying unconscious on the floor, having had a seizure. I’m there to help with the care and can sometimes provide a little assistance. Once the patient has been treated, we take off again and return to the station. More missions follow during the day. We go to houses on the outskirts of the city, or we end up at the railway station and the volunteer fire brigade drives us to the exact location.
The team always works in a focussed and calm manner. “Stress is for the underachievers,” says Mark, the pilot, with a smile. According to this motto, all three of the crew are in full control with serious calm. Friendly behaviour, respect, clear instructions and a good mood after the mission make the work effective and enjoyable. They don’t like to think of themselves as heroes, they are all tough, down-to-earth and not arrogant.
The sun shines orange through the tail rotor – an incredibly exciting day goes by – I was finally able to combine my two professions and was probably the happiest person.

Laureen Seider