In Germany, emergency physicians in the prehospital rescue system ensure primary care. The rescue helicopter in Dresden covers the city of Dresden (population 517,000), surrounding areas with distances up to 70 km. Typical reasons for alerting the rescue helicopter are heart diseases or injuries during accidents. There also is a high number of patients with attempted or completed suicides. The goal of the study was to analyze cases associated with suicide.

Data of all emergency transports from the German Air Rescue (DRF-Luftrettung) Helicopter Base Dresden between January 2008 and December 2009 were recorded on a standardized protocol and transferred to a central computer database. Subsequently, all cases were analyzed with special regard to suicides.

There were a total of 3,051 cases during the study period. Fifty-nine cases (1.9%) were related to suicide. The helicopter was on the scene within 10.9 minutes. The mean NACA Score was 4.9. The mean age was 51.6. A total of 52.5% of patients were male. In 15.2% of the cases, the patient called for emergency help; in 37.3%, bystanders contacted authorities. The reason for attempted suicide was unknown in 57.6% of the cases. In 16.9%, it was related to partnership, in 20.3% to health problems, in 5.1% to financial problems. The main method of attempt was the use of medical pills (47.4%). Other frequent methods were strangulation (18.6%), stab wounds and gunshots (8.5%), intoxication (3.4%), or unknown (16.9%). Six patients received cardiopulmonary resuscitation, four reached a Return of Spontaneous Circulation, and 10 patients died.

Helicopters often transport suicide victims. This study demonstrates the need for better prevention as well as an improvement of education for emergency physicians working in the prehospital setting.