Transporting the Smallest Critical Patients

A Heart Full of Love and Hope

One of our tiniest and most critically ill patients teaches us all a lesson of the human spirit

In October of 2010, AirMed met a miracle.

Alexis Cormier of Hazel Green, Alabama, was born with HLHS, a rare congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped. It stands for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. At age 3, she underwent a third surgery to help her symptoms, but after this complicated surgery, her entire heart was damaged beyond repair. She was immediately put on ECMO.

ECMO is a highly specialized treatment that stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. It is similar to a heart-lung machine and in effect, it removes the blood from the patient,

The tiny patient seen among her life saving equipment
before the first air medical ECMO transport

oxygenates it outside of the body (removing carbon dioxide and adding oxygen) and then replaces it back into the patient. AirMed has the capability of transporting ECMO patients and all of the complicated equipment from one hospital to another’s critical care program. AirMed is one of only a handful of air ambulance programs in the world capable of this type of transport for both pediatric and adult patients.

After being placed on ECMO, Alexis’ hospital in Memphis requested she be moved to Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, and AirMed’s ECMO transport team was called into action.

Just four days after her first ECMO transport flight, it was decided that Alexis needed to be transported again, this time to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, where she would receive a Berlin (artificial) heart.

Once more, the AirMed teams transported Alexis with their specialized ECMO equipment to UAB. This 3 year old who had struggled so much already in her short lifetime looked so small and helpless amidst all of the equipment. Her family held out for a miracle, but her will was strong and would not be denied.

Only four weeks later, members of the AirMed transport team traveled to UAB Hospital to find Alexis standing, smiling, brushing her teeth and splashing in the water at her hospital room sink. The only outward signs of any illness were a small feeding tube and two catheters under her clothing, connected at her lower abdomen. These catheters supply blood to her Berlin heart and return it to her circulatory system.

The Berlin heart device works by helping the right ventricle of the heart to pump blood to the lungs and the left ventricle to pump blood to the body. The bulk of the device is extracorporeal (outside the body); only the tubes are implanted. They emerge from small openings to enter the pump, a small round chamber, and the system is run by a laptop computer. 

The Berlin Heart is intended to be used as a bridge to recovery or as a bridge to a transplant, which Alexis required. She was listed as 1-A on the nationwide heart recipient list, meaning she was among the top pediatric priorities. 

Within a year, Alexis was undergoing a full blown heart transplant and now, in 2013, she is a thriving and active first grader. 

Every one of us at AirMed International is grateful to be able to touch a life such as Alexis Cormier’s during our day to day duties.

Become an AirMed member and visit airmed.com. 

Medical Transportation to Cincinnati Children's Hospital

Medical Transportation to Cincinnati Children's Hospital

AirMed serves as the primary fixed wing vendor for the acclaimed Cincinnati Children's Hospital, which provides a wide range of clinical services and pediatric care specialists dedicated to improving the health of children.  Our fixed wing medical aircraft is available to them as they transport young patients from across the United States to their facilities.

Their pediatric urgent care specialists are nationally recognized for medical excellence; U.S. News & World Report ranked Cincinnati Children’s No. 3 in the nation in the magazine’s 2013-2014 list of the best children’s hospitals.

Shown here is one of Cincinnati Children's isolettes used in transport flights.

"We appreciate the professionalism displayed by everyone at the AirMed organization. Your attention to even the smallest details during flight operations is invaluable to our teams. As the primary vendor for Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC), AirMed continues to meet and exceed our standards of service,"  a quote from the clinical director CCHMC Transport Program.

The critical-care transport team uses the most up-to-date equipment, including invasive and non-invasive cardio-respiratory monitoring, transport nitric oxide, newborn and pediatric ventilators, emergency medications, chest drainage systems and cervical spine immobilization equipment. 

CCHMC teams train alongside AirMed medical and flight staff on fire safety, water safety, altitude physiology and stressors of flight which provides much needed communication to keep every transport running smoothly.

Inside the World of an International Flight Dispatcher

Dispatches from the Air Medical Field

The dispatchers at AirMed have their fingerprints all over flight operations for the company. Lead Dispatcher Jason Garcia took some time to tell us about the department and their important part of the air medical process.

by Jason Garcia
Lead Dispatcher at AirMed International

I actually had never heard of flight dispatching until a few months before I was enrolled in a flight dispatch class working on my certification. Fresh out of the Army and living off the generosity of relatives, I somehow completed the course with no problems and found myself looking for my first job as a flight dispatcher in the wake of 9/11. I had received my dispatch license only one week prior to September 11, 2001. After stints in Wichita and Cleveland, I came to AirMed in 2004 and have been here ever since.

Dispatchers deal with weather, air traffic, visibility issues,

customs issues, flight planning, pilot staffing, and

have a host of other unsung talents that help AirMed's

air medical flights operate smoothly.

AirMed dispatch combines every possible aspect of planning and logistics for our long-distance and domestic medical transports. Besides the flight planning and weather checking, we spend much of our time dealing with foreign handlers and customs agents all over the USA and abroad.

In today’s modern aviation environment there exists a huge list of little things you need to keep track of in order for trips to run smoothly. I have described my team of dispatchers as the busy legs that keep the duck looking so serene and relaxed on the pond…only this pond is full of alligators, red tape and rapidly changing requirements from other countries. Needless to say, I rely heavily on local handling agents to keep everything running properly and to make sure that our patients are brought safely home and that we exceed all their expectations.

Here at AirMed we only hire certified Part 121 flight dispatchers. That means they have passed the FAA Flight Dispatcher’s course and have been issued an FAA dispatcher license. The course includes classes on flight planning, aircraft performance and lots of instruction on reading weather forecast and condition reports. That sounds simple enough, but no one breezes through Dispatch School, and it is not uncommon for people to know the exact score they received on the final exam literally decades after taking the test. (I got a 92.)

Being a successful flight dispatcher requires a few other talents. All good dispatchers are organized and use their experience to plan ahead a few steps. I can always tell when a new dispatcher is progressing well in their training by the level of questions they ask. Not the number of questions, but rather the complexity of the question, such as how a single aspect of a trip can affect the success of the trip as a whole.

In the end though, every trip is different. To be successful, I am constantly rolling with the punches and playing them as I see fit. Sometimes I believe that I can expect a day where there could be no surprises and have it complicated with a typhoon or Israeli sorties in Lebanon or both. In those cases, a sense of humor may be a dispatcher’s most valuable commodity.

Over the years I have learned that no matter how deep the hole I find myself standing in, I always somehow find a way to make things all work out. Focusing on the trip and reminding myself and the dispatchers that someone is relying on our team to get them home after they hurt themselves while far from home is paramount. “Who better than me to get this person home to their family.” I actually say that to myself sometimes, and it works.

When the patient is delivered and the crew is on their way back to our home base, I enjoy a victory meal. The McDonalds by my house is open all night...they know me.

Larger air ambulance jets offer room for two patients

There's Room for Two in Our Air Medical Transports

Most fixed-wing air ambulances do not have room for more than one patient,
but AirMed's Hawker 800 has two patient capabilities, which can be
vital in obstetrics cases and many other critical care situations.

Visit airmed.com for more information on air ambulance capabilities.

AirMed Beechjet Fixed Wing Air Ambulance

AirMed Medical Fleets Are Top of the Line

Take a trip inside (and out!) of our Beechjet 400 air ambulance. AirMed has two Beechjet aircraft which are based in Rochester and Minnesota to support Mayo Clinic and their critical care transport program, Mayo MedAir, as well as other prominent programs in the region.  

This is just one of AirMed's fleet of medical jets.