V.O.: In 1976, a cowboy, a fireman and hospital leadership came together to launch Life Flight the first air ambulance program in Texas.

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Sabina Knight
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1 In 1976, a cowboy, a fireman and hospital leadership came together to launch Life Flight the first air ambulance program in Texas. In the early 1970s, civilian helicopter EMS was revolutionary. Houston had just launched its first city-operated EMS system. At the time, most hospitals had never considered building a helipad. But a Hermann Hospital trustee was ahead of the curve. Mr. Dunn built the heliport over the emergency room and nobody knew anything about helicopters back then When he built it, there were no medical helicopter programs in the country. Dr. James Red Duke, Jr. arrived at Hermann Hospital a year before the helipad was built and was charged with creating a trauma center. Dr. Duke came to know District Fire Chief Whitey" Martin, who was in charge of EMS. Martin would become a champion of the service that would soon transport critically injured and sick Houstonians to Hermann Hospital in the fraction of time it would take an ambulance. Martin told Dr. Duke he had heard about an air ambulance program in Denver called Flight for Life. Together, they approached hospital leadership about creating a similar program. We decided we'd go up there and look at it. The hospital leadership saw the program s potential and took it upon themselves to get the money to launch a helicopter EMS service.. Through this determination Life Flight was successfully inaugurated. At the time Life Flight was launched, only one other civilian helicopter EMS service existed in the United States and there were no models or procedures 1

Dunn built the heliport over the emergency room and nobody knew anything about helicopters back then When he built it, there were no medical helicopter programs in the country. Dr. James Red Duke, Jr.

2 to follow. EMS flight crew positions hadn t existed before then. Dr. Duke and his team Glenda Gates, a nurse and director of the Emergency Center, John Self, the director of public relations, and Dr. Bill Clark, a third-year surgical resident spent three months devising medical, safety and communication protocols for the fledgling program. Dr. Duke hand-picked exceptional critical care nurses and readied them to become a new kind of caregiver flight nurses. Spearheading the program, Dr. Duke was named as the first medical director of Life Flight a title he still holds today. There are not too many physicians who are crazy enough to want to fool with this stuff. With one helicopter and a red telephone on the triage nurse s desk as its transfer center, Life Flight flew its first mission on August 1, 1976 transferring two trauma patients from Citizen s General Hospital. We made 3 flights the first day and 45 the first month and it just kept going. Later that year, Marguerite Badger joined the program as the patient services manager and would eventually become director of Life Flight. The program continued to grow and Smith went back to the hospital board to receive more funding. In 1977, Life Flight garnered serious media attention when it transported patients from a fire at a Texaco refinery in Port Arthur. Their timely response to the industrial accident put Hermann Hospital s air ambulance program on the map. Soon, 24 hours a day, Life Flight was responding without question to requests from EMS, fire and law enforcement agencies, as well as from physicians, hospitals and industrial safety officials. In 1979, Life Flight added a fixed wing program to fly patients to and from hospitals all over the world. 2

Duke hand-picked exceptional critical care nurses and readied them to become a new kind of caregiver flight nurses. Spearheading the program, Dr.

3 Pilot: The time frame that it takes for us to get a patient and bring them back could be the difference between life and death. The Golden Hour ain't 30 to 60 minutes long. Doctor: The golden hour talks about from the minute an accident happens tanned in that first hour of injury,. the best time we have to take care of a critically ill patient. we have constant communication with the helicopters in the air, so we know what the patient's status is, we know what need to do when they get here, and we're ready for them when they hit the door. Since its inception 35 years ago, Life Flight has become the busiest air ambulance program in the country. The service operates around the clock weather permitting 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. /Nightline: Life Flight Memorial Hermann air ambulance service now flies to and from Galveston on a daily basis. On the Saturday we visited, Life Flight landed 30 times. Life Flight became Memorial Hermann Life Flight in 1997 when Hermann Hospital and Memorial Hospital System merged. Last year, Life Flight completed more than 3,000 patient missions. Its helipad which also is used by other air ambulance services transporting patients to our Level I trauma center is capable of landing four helicopters at once and has 10,000 landings and take offs annually. /Time is Life: 1 out of every four Life Flight missions involves children - many of them babies requiring intensive neonatal care. When Aidan Thatcher was born 15 3

we have constant communication with the helicopters in the air, so we know what the patient's status is, we know what need to do when they get here, and we're ready for them when they hit the door.

4 weeks early in College Station, it was a race against the clock to get him to Children's Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center Mother: He was born, he was blue, purple, not breathing. he could fit in the palm of your hand I don't know what this family would be right now if Aidn wasn't here and I thank God every day for life flight and for the employees doctors and nurses at memorial hermann. With a reputation as one of the safest programs in the nation, Life Flight continues to innovate and save lives. /Time is Life : Led by Red Duke, Life Flight's first and only medical director, Memorial Hermann Life Flight crews truly set the gold standard by which others are measured. Each of the program's Flight Nurses and paramedics are certified well beyond what the industry requires, and its highly skilled pilots average 5,000 hours of helicopter experience. Life Flight provides its pilots with every available tool to ensure the safety of its patients and crew, implementing the use of night vision goggles in The once fledgling program now has a fleet of six helicopters, 18 pilots, seven mechanics, 18 flight nurses, eight dispatchers and 16 flight paramedics. It now serves communities within a 150-mile radius of the Texas Medical Center including Southest Texas and part of Western Louisiana with helicopters and worldwide using fixed-wing transport. Patient: I had 27 broken bones, 4 in my neck, all the bones in my legs, all the bones in my arms If I had to go via ambulance or anything else, I wouldn't have made it. 4

memorial hermann. With a reputation as one of the safest programs in the nation, Life Flight continues to innovate and save lives.

5 Life Flight literally, it doesn't just save lives, it saves families. The efforts of those people who helped launch Life Flight have created a Houston icon that is responsible for saving numerous lives. In the more than three decades since it began, Life Flight has been instrumental in delivering critical care to Houston s critically ill and injured, as well as providing air medical transport to Houston and surrounding areas during natural disasters. As of August 1, 2011, its dynamic pilots, mechanics, nurses and paramedics have accomplished more than 130,000 patient missions. 5

In the more than three decades since it began, Life Flight has been instrumental in delivering critical care to Houston s critically ill and

San Benito County Emergency Medical Services Agency

San Benito County Emergency Medical Services Agency Policy : 1060 Effective : May 1, 2014 Reviewed : April 1, 2014 Air Medical Services I. Purpose To authorize a standard of operation for Air Medical Services