By John Asbury
The Press Enterprise
HEMET, Calif. — For the first time in nearly 20 years, a paramedic helicopter will be based in Hemet to fly patients with major injuries to area trauma centers.
Mercy Air, the private company utilized by local medical emergency responders, has relocated its helicopter to Hemet from Banning.
A three-person crew and the helicopter will continue to serve Banning, but now has more range to cover Hemet and its surrounding areas, including the San Jacinto Mountains and Anza.
The emergency chopper has been based at Hemet-Ryan Airport for the past three weeks while its crew is stationed at Hemet Fire Station 4, about five minutes away on Cawston Avenue.
Mercy Air will pay to build a helipad soon at the fire station, Mercy Air Regional Services Director Roy Cox said.
Officials decided to relocate to Hemet because of an increased call volume and remote access to trauma centers in the area. But it will still serve the Pass area, the said.
The helicopter is used to take critically injured patients to the nearest trauma center, which are hospitals that specialize in major injuries.
The closest trauma centers to Hemet are Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley, Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar and Desert Regional in Palm Springs.
“We’re able to do the same thing as any emergency room or ICU,” Mercy Air paramedic and base supervisor Mark Donahue said.
Since the last helicopter team left for Wildomar in the early ‘90s, Hemet firefighters have usually done without a helicopter, Fire Chief Matt Shobert said. It was usually quicker to drive to the nearest trauma center than have to wait for a flight from Thermal, south of Coachella.
Since serving in Hemet, the helicopter has responded to major traffic collisions and several critical medical aid calls.
Last week, the helicopter responded to a 23-month-old child who suffered second-degree burns when she fell into a fire pit at Lake Hemet, in the San Jacinto Mountains. The girl was airlifted to the burn unit at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton.
A 14-year-old girl was airlifted from a motocross track in the Cahuilla section of Anza when her helmet flew off and she was knocked unconscious.
The company bills the patients for the flights, which usually cost about $10,000. No cost is incurred by the city, the county or emergency responders.
In Riverside County, air flights are based solely on time — whether a patient can reach a trauma center within 30 minutes by ambulance, Donahue said.
Riverside County paramedics also take the patient’s status and treatment into consideration when determining the best facility, Cal Fire spokeswoman Cheri Patterson said.
Riverside County firefighters were dependent on Mercy Air in the surrounding Hemet areas and even the more remote regions such as Sage and Anza while the helicopter was still based in Banning, Patterson said.
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