With good roads, a ground ambulance can make it from Sunriver to Bend in 30 minutes. The Air Life helicopter can make it in eight. There are times when these 22 minutes are the most precious in the world.
For nearly 15 years, the steady whir of helicopter blades has been a signal to those in distress that Air Life is on the way. In the average year, the Air Life helicopter makes about 400 flights a year, compared with about 250 flights for the airplane. Although Air Life’s fixed-wing program has grown over the years, it’s the red, white and blue helicopter that serves as the most recognizable icon for the air ambulance service.
“A hangar is a huge safety factor,” explained Clinical Manager Bill Porter. “Most programs don’t have hangars, but we do.”
The role of a hangar goes beyond providing a safe place to store the Air Life helicopter. Without it, winter conditions would require covers for the blades and the helicopter itself, and the crew would need to heat the inside of the ship to keep it ready for flight.
Jim Downes has been an Air Life helicopter pilot since the program’s inception in 1985, and can recall the first two winters before Air Life had a hangar. Downes estimates that the crew needed an additional 15 to 20 minutes to prepare the craft for take-off during the winter months.
“It was tough. You had covers that you had to put on the helicopter when it would rain or snow,” Downes explained. “It was just a mess. It’s a real challenge trying to keep an aircraft in some kind of a mission-ready state outside in the winter, especially here.”
Fortunately, the Air Life helicopter crew can be ready for flight about five minutes after a call comes in. A typical crew includes a pilot, a flight nurse, and a respiratory therapist, though a perinatal nurse is sometimes required when the team must rush to the aid of a baby or new mother in distress.
Another factor that makes the minutes count is the quality of care available once the Air Life crew reaches the patient. Flight nurses are required to have a broad background in patient care to enable them to handle almost any situation they may encounter. From Advanced Cardiac Life Support training (ACLS) to certification as a Neo-natal Resuscitation Provider (NRP) and a plethora of other certifications, the flight nurses must be ready to handle all types of traumas and illnesses.
In addition, the crew carries a supply of blood to accident scenes as needed, something not typical in ordinary ground ambulance situations.
“We have a higher level of skill than most paramedics in the field,” explained Grant Boswell, an Air Life flight nurse.
About 50-percent of the helicopter’s missions involve inter-hospital transport. The other half involve scene calls to accident sites. In making the call between the fixed-wing aircraft and the helicopter, Porter said time is the deciding factor for the crew.