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University Daily Kansan
Closer Look
Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1985
Life Flight
The Spirit of Kansas City Life Flight helicopter is stationed outside St. Joseph Hospital, Kansas City, Mo.
Jim Sineath, a pilot for Life Flight, flies near St. Joseph Hospital
Independence freighters and Independence Medical Center physicians and nurses prepare to load a victim into the Life Flight helicopter bound for the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kan-
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  - The call may come at 11:57 p.m.
Pushing one button, the dispatcher pages a pilot, a nurse and a respiratory therapist.
The crew, running to the waiting helicopter, receives hurried instructions about the flight course and the patient's condition
By midnight, the Life Flight helicopter is in the air; racing to save a life.
The Spirit of Kansas City Life Flight air medical program, sponsored by St. Joseph Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, responds to emergency calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can be answered three minutes, William Latimer, flight operations director, said recently.
Barbara Ketter, one of eight flight nurses, said that flights took precedence over schedules.
"You don't always get off work on time," she said, "but that's all right. Sometimes you find you're on your job when you are supposed to be off."
Life Flight crews respond to emergencies of all kinds, and have
Joplin, Mo., is at the edge of the helicopter's 150-mile response radius, she said, and a call from there could take three hours.
even delivered a baby while airborne. But most flights involve transferring patients from one hospital to another. Latimer said.
Bob Love, chief dispatcher, said many of the transfers were from Russia.
"These small hospitals just don't have the finances to buy equipment for specialized care," Love said. "Occasionally they run into that patient who needs a little more than they can offer."
"Survival is 52 percent higher by air than by ground," he said. "In emergency medical circles they refer to the 'golden hour.' If a patient can be taken to the emergency center of a hospital within an hour of an accident, there is much better chance of much better chance of survival. After that hour it really goes down."
There is a high survival rate for all air medical programs. Laitmer said
"Helicopters fit into that picture beautifully because we usually can get in there and back and save a lot of time in flight."
Being faster than ground ambulances is just one advantage of Life Flight. It can also pick up patients in areas that may not be accessible to cars.
Twice Life Flight has rescued people who fell into an area with concrete walls on two sides. Latimer said the walls were 60 feet apart, and the propeller span of the helicopter is 43 feet.
"It's not an easy thing to do, but they can do it," he said.
The three pilots, all Vietnam veterans, and the mechanic deserve credit for the program's half million accident free miles. Latimer said.
Although Life Flight does not respond to calls that can be easily handled by ground ambulances, Latimer has even have made it a successful program.
"Growth has been constant over the years," he said. "We started with one flight every two or three days. Now we average three a day."
"You get to the point where you're banging your head against the ceiling."
Life Flight is reaching that point, he said. Some calls are now turned down because the helicopter is on another call.
A second helicopter may be added soon at St. Luke's, which in July join them on the job.
Although St. Joseph had been the sole sponsor of the program since 1978, Latimer said, "From the very first day, it hasn't been St. Joseph's program. We've always considered it a community service."
Wallace and mechanic Gale Williams load supplies into the Life Flight helicopter in preparation for the next flight. Below dispatcher Marty Nehl operates the Life Flight control board.
Story by Stefani Day Photos by Alan Hagman