Med Flight Helicopter Air Evac Lifeteam 107 – Licking County, OH landed in the back parking lot of the Dresden Elementary school on May 8, giving students a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Kindergarten through 6th grade were treated to a field trip-like experience without having to leave their school! Students were able to see the helicopter as it approached and then hovered above their school, watched as it landed, met the three-person crew, and got to ask questions before taking pictures with the aircraft.
John Foster, a member of the Air Evac Lifeteam 101 – Lancaster, OH has a granddaughter who attends kindergarten at Dresden Elementary. “I was talking to Mr. Richie, and I had made the comment that I had come straight from work, and he asked what I did, and I explained it, and just jokingly, he asked what it would take to get an aircraft down here. I said a couple of phone calls,” explained Foster.
Around 10:00 a.m., the staff and students of Dresden Elementary gathered behind the school near the playground. Mr. Foster spoke to the students and answered some of their questions while they waited for Air Evac Lifeteam 107 to arrive. As anticipation grew, the chopper was en route, arriving with cheers and excitement from the crowd. After landing, the aircraft had to cool for a few minutes, and the blades had to come to a complete stop before classes approached, eager to get an up-close look.
The Bell 206 LongRanger Helicopter was produced by Bell Helicopter Textron manufactured at a Canadian plant in Mirabel, Quebec. According to the website airport-technology.com, it first entered into service in 1992 and is often used for police and paramilitary missions, police patrol, corporate transport, by news stations, for airborne surveillance, and, of course, emergency medical services like Air Evac Lifeteam.
The essential lifesaving aircraft that is the Bell 206 LongRanger measures 42′ 6″ long and 11′ 8″ high. Its gross weight is 4,450 pounds. Its range is 390 miles at speeds up to 144 miles per hour. The aircraft is set up to hold a pilot, a paramedic, a nurse, and one patient at a time.
Students met Nurse Brittany Shearer, Pilot Frank Susskey, and Paramedic Bryan Thompson (Thompson recently celebrated completing 1,000 patient flights). The team explained what their roles are, a little about the helicopter, and the equipment onboard.
“I love doing it, I have kids too, so I think it is great for them to see it (a life flight helicopter) in situations like this, it’s not as scary, so that maybe in the future if something were to happen it is not as scary they have already seen something like this, we’ve made it a little bit less scary in that moment, said Shearer. “And it’s also cool, like hey, there are job opportunities out there that are more than what you might see normally. And everybody wants to be a pilot!”
The Lancaster base visits about 10 to 12 schools a year, and they also participate in health and safety fairs throughout the year.
“Air Evac is actually owned by an umbrella company called Global Medical Response, Inc., and they are super good about public relations, and they’ll allow us to expand fuel oil and man-hours, and so on and so forth, just to come out and do stuff like this. We do it not only here but all over central Ohio, stated Foster. “I’ve actually talked to the fire department, and moving forward, we may try to do this as an annual thing.”
Air Evac Lifeteam employs more than 600 registered nurses and 600 paramedics to board more than 150 medically equipped helicopters that are equipped with advanced safety systems. The company serves more than 18 states.
You can learn more about Air Evac Lifeteam by visiting www.lifeteam.net.
