Reported by wpde.com
GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. — The closure of Horry County's only medical helicopter is forcing some fire departments to re-think their emergency response plans.
ABC 15 Investigates first reported that Lifenet in Conway, SC, was shutting down without warning on Thursday, after watching employees load boxes into vehicles from the subsidiary's headquarters.
Midway Fire Chief Doug Eggiman said he was told to not call LifeNet on Thursday morning. It's a loss for him, since that helicopter was the only one within range of his department.
He said LifeNet's arrival time was about 15 minutes. The next closest in Marion was double that.
Now, he said all patients must be taken by ambulance to Grand Strand Medical Center, a 40-minute drive from Litchfield and Pawleys Island.
"It's one of those things where you can only play the hand you're dealt," he said.
Eggiman estimated that he called LifeNet for six to twelve patients per year which he classified as the most severe cases. The latest happened in early November, after a woman was burned during a kitchen fire in Pawleys Island.
"Obviously we don't have any ability to transport by ground to a place like Chapel Hill, North Carolina," he said. "That would mean we would end up taking that patient to a local trauma center like Grand Strand instead of the patient going directly to Chapel Hill."
That also means his ambulance is out of service for two or more hours. While it's a quick drive up the coast, the truck can't use its lights and sirens on the way back.
Occasionally, ambulances from the South Strand will get routed to other calls on that journey home if they're close enough to the scene, taking it out of the rotation even longer. Midway only has two ambulances staffed full-time.
Eggiman said there would be cases when it would make sense to call a helicopter still, particularly if firefighters know in advance that it would take a bit of time to get a critically injured patient freed from a vehicle.
He said LifeNet or otherwise, all that matters is what's best for the patient, while continuing to follow industry guidelines.
ABC 15 has continued to reach out to LifeNet's parent company, Air Methods, but has not received a response.
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