Life Flight and Baptist Health Celebrate Air Ambulance Service's 30th Year of Service to the Region
Life Flight Was First Air Ambulance in Jacksonville and One of Only 2 in the State When Established

Jacksonville, Florida, May 21, 2010010 -- During National Emergency Services Week, May 16-22, Baptist Health celebrates Life Flight's 30th year of serving the Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia region. Life Flight will commemorate this anniversary throughout the year, holding events with EMS personnel and Baptist Medical Center Downtown to thank them for their support. Established as one of only two civilian air ambulance programs in the state (Pensacola had the first in Florida) and one of only three nationwide (Denver had the first in the country), Life Flight at Baptist Medical Center was Jacksonville's first air ambulance service. The helicopter was called into service on August 3, 1980.

Civilian air ambulances were established following the Vietnam War, when about 1,400 pilots flew air ambulances to evacuate wounded soldiers from battle. Hospitals learned from the military that flying critically injured or ill patients from a scene to medical care shaved off time for transport, sometimes meaning the difference between life and death.

"When Life Flight first came to Baptist Medical Center, it was cutting edge. It was revolutionary," remembers the hospital's Chief of Emergency Medicine, Richard Stromberg, MD, who served as Life Flight's third medical director. "Life Flight's establishment marked an enormous change in how certain kinds of emergencies were handled in Northeast Florida because we suddenly had available very rapid transport."

He adds, "I actually received a patient from Life Flight the day before we inaugurated the service. Rescue knew we had an air ambulance, so they brought a fellow who had nearly drowned in a retention pond who had a devastating neurological condition. He survived, in part due to how quickly he was transported to care."

Since 1980, Life Flight has completed more than 21,000 safe and accident-free patient care missions. Piloted by three Vietnam War-trained pilots and one Army-trained pilot, Life Flight transports people of all ages, from critically ill newborns to senior adults. The crew -- typically comprised of a flight nurse and flight paramedic with years of critical care, pre-hospital and emergency medicine experience, along with a highly experienced pilot -- offers medical treatment of the whole spectrum of emergency conditions. This includes everything from trauma and extreme prematurity of a newborn to chest pain and stroke. Life Flight is a community resource, transporting to and from hospitals throughout the region, wherever and whenever there is a need.

Life Flight covers 150 nautical miles and is outfitted as a self-contained critical care unit with equipment for advanced life support. It includes an 800 megahertz radio system, which offers further range and crystal clear communications, along with satellite tracking for crew safety by providing continuous monitoring of each flight; the radio system also provides real-time, on-board weather information and a traffic avoidance system.

Life Flight is equipped to transfer the sickest newborns, containing a hook-up to an isolette for transporting these babies with Kids Kare's Neonatal and Pediatric Transport Teams, a Wolfson Children's Hospital service.

"As we celebrate our 30 years of service to our community, we are proud that Life Flight was the first Certified Air Medical Transport (Rotor Wing) Service in the state of Florida," says Life Flight Medical Director Brad Elias, MD, who was recently named the Florida Bureau of EMS’s "Medical Director of the Year." "CAMTS accreditation is highly regarded in the air medical industry and represents the hard work of the entire Life Flight staff, crew members, pilots, mechanics, leadership and medical directors.

"What our 30 years of service and the CAMTS accreditation mean to the community is that we are using the best evidence-based practices to care for our patients in the air and to rapidly get them to the next level of care that they need," adds Dr. Elias. "I am proud to be associated with this medical transport program dedicated to excellence and quality patient care. Our patients can rest assured they are being cared for by the best."