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Rob Martin typically doesn't know details about patients he will help transport to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, so the flight nurse mentally runs through various critical care scenarios on the way.

A pedestrian struck on a rural northwest Ohio road who must be quickly transported by helicopter could be 40, 14, or even 4. A child with a head bleed could be unconscious in another hospital's emergency room or fully awake when the flight crew arrives.

Planning for those and other care options during the ride is an integral part of Mr. Martin's job.

So is assuring patients and loved ones - who probably heard Life Flight's arrival, an unmistakable signal that not all is well - that they will be in good hands on the impending trip.

Life Flight still aloft after 30 years

If anyone on a Life Flight team feels uncertain about weather conditions, then pilots such as retired Marine Mel DeMars will turn around and land.

"I want to make them comfortable in the situation," said Mr. Martin, who started his nursing career as an intensive care nurse at the former Medical College of Ohio.

The lure of being able to assist patients even earlier in the treatment process propelled Mr. Martin to Life Flight 6 1/2 years ago, he said. He is based at St. Vincent, Life Flight's headquarters.

Life Flight pilot Brian Conroy makes a flight. When it started 30 years ago, Life Flight was one of fewer than 20 air ambulance services nationwide. It has made roughly 90,000 transports.
( THE BLADE/LORI KING )

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"I was taking care of the patient that the helicopter was dropping off," recalled Mr. Martin, regional base site manager. "I've not had a dull day yet."

Life Flight, which began at St. Vincent as a one-year trial, is observing its 30th anniversary this year and the completion of roughly 90,000 transports.

Fewer than 20 air ambulance services existed when Life Flight got its start, and the program was the first in Ohio and Michigan. Now, more than 800 helicopters nationwide fly emergency medical missions, including Life Flight's five stationed throughout northwest Ohio performing 2,800 flights a year.

The number of emergency medical helicopters nationwide has doubled since 2002 to more than 800, according to the Association of Air Medical Services.

A LIFE FLIGHT TIMELINE

1978: Son of the late Dr. Frank Foss of St. Vincent Hospital is injured in a Lake Erie boating accident. Rescue crews struggle getting to him, and Dr. Foss pursues a medical helicopter service.

1979: St. Vincent begins Life Flight program, the first in Ohio and Michigan. There are fewer than 20 such services nationwide.

1985: Pilot John Harrison and Dr. Jean Hollister are killed when their helicopter crashes near Manitou Beach, Mich., on the way to pick up an accident victim. Flight nurse Julie Miller is injured.

1993: The former Medical College of Ohio joins the Life Flight program, and a second helicopter is added to the service.

1994: Mobile Life intensive care ground transportation services are added. Through the years, more ambulance bases are added throughout northwest Ohio.

1998: St. Rita's Medical Center in Lima, Ohio, joins the program. A third helicopter is added in Bluffton.

1999: Life Flight helicopter crashes into a central Toledo house, seriously injuring the three members of the flight crew. No patients are on
board.

2000: Life Flight responds to the Lonz Winery patio collapse on Middle Bass Island with all three medical helicopters. A Columbus man dies and 75 people are injured in the accident.

2005: Life Flight sends two helicopters to assist with the evacuation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

2009: The program, which now has five helicopters based in Toledo, Bluffton, Wauseon, Clyde, and Milan, celebrates its 30th anniversary.

A critical service

Nationwide, the surge in emergency helicopters is being fueled by an aging population, especially in rural areas, closures of emergency departments, hospitals, and community-based ambulance services, and changes in rural hospitals that require patients with complex medical problems be transferred to larger trauma centers, according to the association.

Twenty years after Life Flight started, northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan got a second, albeit smaller, emergency helicopter service in 1999. ProMedica Air is a three-
helicopter program with bases at Toledo Express Airport and in Defiance.

Although its medical mission to fetch premature babies, accident victims, and other critical patients in 15 minutes by air instead of an hour by land gains the most attention, Life Flight teams do more than fly.

Staying in touch

For example, Brian Burgee, a Life Flight transport paramedic, spends part of his day visiting the patients whom crews have taken to St. Vincent. About 30 percent of missions are directly to accident scenes, and the rest are to community hospitals, where victims and other patients need more advanced care.

Patient visits allow crew members to help provide continuity of care to both patients and families. They also give members of Life Flight and other emergency medical teams updates on the outcomes of patients, who may later visit their quarters and see the helicopter they were transported in.

"It helps us, too," Mr. Burgee said. "We see them a lot of the times when they're at their worst."

Some patients are especially dear to Life Flight crew members, who also conduct education courses for other emergency medical service providers.

Nathan Fellinger, who turns 8 this week, was born at home 2 1/2 months early to a northwest Ohio woman who had not yet selected her baby's adoptive family. Crew members gave the infant who weighed 2 pounds, 8 ounces at birth baby clothes with the Life Flight insignia and kept him company until adoptive parents Kathy and Steve Fellinger of Kirtland, Ohio, were chosen.

"We'd go up and visit him in the unit because he didn't have a family yet," said Julie Goins, now Life Flight program manager. "They've become close friends, and that's the cool part of this job."

Nathan was 4 days old when the Fellingers signed adoption papers, and he was hospitalized at St. Vincent and then the Cleveland Clinic for nearly two months. Ms. Goins went to Nathan's baby shower, and their families visit and otherwise keep in touch, Mrs. Fellinger said.

"You could hold him in the palm of your hand," Mrs. Fellinger recalled of the newborn. "Basically, he was healthy. He just had to grow."

Staying on course

St. Vincent's Life Flight crew is based in the D'Youville Education Center building between the emergency department and helicopter hangar.

Life Flight has offices with beds so crew members can rest between missions, and the dispatch center for all helicopters and Mobile Life ambulances is down the hall.

Ms. Goins, who started as a Life Flight nurse in 1993, has seen several changes through the years. At one time, nurses and doctors went on all missions, but now the medical team often is made up of a nurse and a paramedic, she said.

Crew members now are outfitted with flame-retardant suits, helmets, eye protection, and other safety gear. And helicopters have sophisticated aviation-related technology, including global positioning systems and weather radar.

Navigating back roads was more difficult before GPS, said Mr. DeMars, the pilot who has been at Life Flight for 10 years.

"It was a whole lot harder to go out and find these places," said the employee of West Michigan Air Care, a Kalamazoo company that provides Life Flight with pilots and mechanics.

Dispatchers also have sophisticated radio and mapping programs to help direct helicopter pilots and ambulance drivers to their destinations, although they keep traditional map-reading skills fresh in case computer problems develop. Dispatchers keep a close watch both on emergency units and weather forecasts.

Tragic accidents

There have been some tragedies in Life Flight's history.

In December, 1985, Life Flight pilot John Harrison and Dr. Jean Hollister were killed when their helicopter crashed near Manitou Beach, Mich., on the way to pick up an accident victim. Flight nurse Julie Miller was injured in the crash, which the National Transportation Safety Board attributed to a sudden and unpredicted change from clear weather to fog.

A Life Flight helicopter in 1999 crashed into a central Toledo house during a sudden snow squall, seriously injuring the three members of the flight crew. No patients were on board.

Life Flight clinical assistant Kristi Double, who has worked 10 years with the medical helicopter service, said she still stops in awe to watch a Life Flight helicopter pass overhead.

"You just look at them and say a little prayer that they get where they're going safely and get home safely," she said.

Contact Julie M. McKinnon at:
jmckinnon@theblade.com
or 419-724-6087.

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