By Beth Gallaspy
The Beaumont Enterprise (Texas)
Copyright 2007 The Beaumont Enterprise
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Ross McLauchlan had flown through the window of his friend’s flipping SUV, slid along the highway and ended up with the wrecked vehicle on top of him.
Despite broken bones and burns over a fifth of his body, the Houston teen remembers a moment of calm after that July 2005 wreck. It came when the helicopter arrived.
McLauchlan, 18, said he remembers feeling “a sort of serenity” when a Life Flight helicopter crew began caring for him at the accident scene near Huntsville and preparing to take him to a Houston hospital.
“Even with everything that’s going on, you feel some sort of safety,” McLauchlan said by telephone.
Life Flight, one of two air ambulance services that respond to emergency calls in Southeast Texas, hopes to expand on what it can do with planned upgrades to its equipment.
The first air ambulance service in Texas and second in the country, Memorial Hermann’s Life Flight is the focus of a $40 million campaign announced Tuesday by the Memorial Hermann Foundation. Half the money already has been raised in donations from individuals, corporations and foundations.
The money will be used to replace the four existing helicopters in the Life Flight fleet and add two more. One would be dedicated to pediatric and obstetric cases and one would be stationed in East Houston, closer to the Southeast Texas communities that sometimes rely on the service.
Life Flight answered 106 calls in Jefferson County and 21 in Orange County last year and 12 in the two counties combined so far this year, according to information provided by the foundation. In Liberty County, Life Flight responded 208 times last year and 76 times so far this year. In Chambers County, totals were 67 last year and 21 so far this year.
“We provide this rescue service to everyone -- regardless of their ability to pay -- and we want to continue to do so,” Memorial Hermann chief operating officer Tom Flanagan said in a news release. “That’s why we’ve initiated a fundraising campaign to help us meet the increased demand for this great service.”
Southeast Texas also has air ambulance service from Southeast Texas Air Rescue, which operates one helicopter from Christus St. Elizabeth and one from Christus Jasper Memorial Hospital.
Each helicopter responds to 30 to 50 calls per month, depending on what weather conditions allow, said Southeast Texas Air Rescue program director Jon Clingaman.
When an air ambulance is needed, the closest, most appropriate aircraft must be called, Clingaman said. Like Life Flight helicopters, those operated from the Christus hospitals are staffed by a registered nurse and a paramedic, Clingaman said.
In more unusual circumstances, such as a neonatal case, the call would be referred to a Houston crew with specialized training, he said.
With the new helicopters, Life Flight expects to reduce the average response time from 44 to 30 minutes. The new helicopters also will transmit video to emergency rooms on the ground to help hospitals better prepare for a patient’s arrival, according to a fact sheet.
McLauchlan said he wants to support the Life Flight campaign because of the difference the 2005 flight made for him. He went into shock on the 20-minute trip, spent a month in a burn unit and several months in a wheelchair.
On Monday, he was on his way to lacrosse practice.