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100 People Evacuated from Hurrican Region by Air Evac Lifeteam Helicopters
Air Evac Lifeteam, based in West Plains, Missouri, sent eight helicopters and more than 65 employees to Louisiana and Mississippi to assist with relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In five days, they provided medical transportation for 100 patients. Most of the patients were flown from hospitals in downtown New Orleans and Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi.
The decision to send support to The Gulf region was an easy one for Air Evac officials to make, Collins said. “As soon as we learned of the extent of the damage in the region, we knew we had to do something to help. We’ve never considered ourselves to be just an air ambulance company. We are a community health service, supported by the people we serve. There was no question these communities needed our help and needed it as quickly as possible.”
Shortly after company officials started making plans to deploy aircraft and crew to the region, they received a call from HCA (Healthcare Corporation of America) which operates Tulane University Hospital in Louisiana asking if they could help evacuate patients from their facility. By the morning of August 30, the staff was selected and the process of moving operations down south began.
Collins said he is especially proud of the manner in which Air Evac employees responded to the disaster. “Before we even had an opportunity to announce our plans to provide resources in the area, we were inundated by phone calls and emails from crewmembers volunteering to help. We had a list of several hundred people who wanted to offer their skills and time to the operation.”
Air Evac officials set up an emergency operations center at their corporate headquarters in West Plains to help support the mission, maintain communication, secure locations for refueling and provide transportation for crewmembers in and out of the region. Senior management groups were sent to the region to provide on the scene support. AEL operated a dedicated fixed wing aircraft for travel and support missions. Mechanics, equipped with maintenance support packages, were also dispatched to the area to provide maintenance support for the aircraft.
“Our operating model, which includes the use of a single aircraft model – the Bell 206 LongRanger – for all operations, as well as the use of standardized medical equipment and supplies and a coordinated communication system set up from one location here in West Plains made it much easier for us to coordinate a project as large as this one,” said Air Evac Lifeteam Vice President of Operations Seth Myers. “We could pull employees from different locations throughout our service area and they were all familiar with the aircraft, maintenance procedures and the locations of various medical equipment in whatever aircraft they were assigned.”
“The biggest challenge – the lack of communication – was made easier due to having SkyTrac satellite systems installed in all the aircraft used in the mission. SkyTrac helped us track the locations of the aircraft and keep in better contact with our crewmembers,” he added.
Kathleen Wallace, the president and CEO of SkyTrac Systems and Maryanne Kelly, Lead Engineer of SkyTrac’s Software Development team traveled to West Plains from Penticton, British Columbia, to provide on-site support during the relief effort.
“It was an amazing opportunity for us to observe Air Evac’s team of dedicated professionals in action during a time of crisis and the role that our system plays to support their efforts,” Wallace said. “We will now be able to make future system enhancements based on critical, first hand field experience.”
One of the crews also trialed a satellite PDA system which allowed them to send text-style messages through satellite back to the Lifeteam Communications Center. Much of the communication throughout the week was handled through cellular phone text messaging.
Four aircraft from Air Evac Lifeteam bases in Coffee County, Tenn., Cullman and Fayette, Ala., and Jonesboro, Ark., were sent to Mississippi and four aircraft from Air Evac bases in Vilonia and Marianna, Ark., and Wharton and San Marcos, Texas, were sent to Louisiana. The crewmembers staffing those helicopters were from bases throughout services areas served by Air Evac Lifeteam.
The crews in Louisiana began the evacuation of Tulane University Hospital on August 31. Hospital officials set up a makeshift landing zone on the top of a parking garage at the hospital. The first patients were babies and children who were flown to an airport where they were placed in a fixed-wing aircraft and flown to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
Vilonia, Ark., Lead Paramedic Mike Williamson said he will never forget the first patient he cared for that morning.
He relayed the story of a 10-month-old baby boy, who was brought to the aircraft by his parents, tears streaming down their faces. “They wept as they placed their baby boy in my arms and begged me to take care of him,” he said. “I assured them we would get their son to a safe place and gave the mother a hug, hoping it would reassure her a little. As I looked into her eyes, I saw a glimmer of hope – hope that her baby would get to the care he needed.”
That first flight was followed by several more that morning – many of the children cancer patients, whose already weak bodies were weakened even further due to having little food and water over the three previous days.
That night, Air Evac officials learned of a physician at Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans who was calling the news media begging them to find help for the 10 critical patients in their ICU. The hospital’s generators had run out of fuel and medical personnel were providing ventilation for the patients with hand operated bag valve ventilators. The doctor said four of the patients were in urgent need of dialysis. Charity Hospital does not have a helipad and they were unable to get the patients to a landing area because water around the hospital was six to 10 feet deep.
Colin Collins called the physician, telling him Air Evac would transport his patients if he could find way to get them to the Tulane Hospital helipad a few blocks away. Four patients from Charity Hospital were flown to medical care by Air Evac Lifeteam after arrangements were made to get the patients by boat to the Tulane helipad.
Ronnie Swann, a paramedic from the Wharton, Texas, base, said patients, both bed-ridden and ambulatory, were lined up in the parking garage waiting to be evacuated. “I was amazed at the strength of the medical personnel at Tulane Hospital,” he said. “In spite of everything they were going through, they were very professional and somehow managed to stay upbeat to give patients the hope they needed to survive the tragedy.”
In between patient flights, crews flew water, medical supplies and food in to the medical facilities.
Crews in Louisiana flew 43 patients from August 31 through September 3. They were only able to fly missions during the daylight hours due to security issues.
In Mississippi, Air Evac crews flew 57 patients. They began flights on August 31 and the last helicopter left the region the evening of September 5. Air Evac Lifeteam coordinated all the flights in the Mississippi region from the Operations Center set up in West Plains. Company officials worked with hospitals, mainly in Gulfport and Biloxi, to identify patients who needed medical evacuation and then contacted other medical facilities in the region to see if they could receive the patients. Many of the patients went to hospitals in Mobile, Ala. Air Evac coordinated a total of 77 flights, with 20 of those flights being flown by Pensacola Baptist Hospital out of Florida.
Bruce Carson, lead paramedic at the Muscle Shoals, Ala., Air Evac base, worked with a crew in the Mississippi region. He said he will never forget the devastation he saw, but what really stands out in his mind is the sheer dedication of the people working in the hospitals.
“When we landed at Gulfport Memorial the first day, we were greeted by the Operating Room Manager. As I walked up and shook his hand to introduce myself, he started to cry and it took him a few minutes to collect himself before he could talk,” Bruce said. “He told us he lost his home and was working because he had nothing else. He said they were performing surgery with nurses holding flashlights.”
Another employee, flight nurse Cindy Ferguson, who works at the Lewisburg, Tenn. Air Evac base said when they walked into a hospital emergency department in the Gulf area to begin evacuations one morning, the entire ER staff stood and applauded for them.
“I can't tell you how happy I am to be working for Air Evac Lifeteam and to have the chance to be a part of this,” Ferguson said.
Collins said he is extremely proud to be associated with Air Evac Lifeteam and the dedicated people who work for the company. “I always knew I worked with the most outstanding people in the world, but this last week they really proved it. This was a true team effort. We could not have accomplished this mission without the support of everyone in the company.”
Air Evac Lifeteam is the largest independently owned air ambulance service in the United States. Based out of West Plains, Mo., the company operates 58 bases in 11 states throughout the central United States. The company has been providing medical evacuation services to rural communities for 20 years.
For more information about Air Evac Lifeteam services, call 1-800-793-0010 or visit www.lifeteam.net
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