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Parkiew Samaritin Helicoper
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As reported by Kpcnews.com

INDIANA - Parkview Samaritin helicopters celebrated its 30th anniversary on Monday, November 18th.


Monday, the Parkview Samaritan 1 helicopter and the hospital’s flight EMS celebrated its 30th birthday, and with that age comes experience.


Just ask Mel Tucker, a Samaritan helicopter paramedic who is about to retire in March after working in EMS for 43 years.


“You’re doing things that are not commonly done out in the field by regular paramedics, like blood transfusions, and you’re doing it in a high-stress, high-intensity environment,” Tucker said.


That specialization and coolness under pressure place more experienced nurses and paramedics in the air for Parkview. Sometimes, that experience can come from the military, with Vietnam and Afghanistan veterans a common sight amongst pilots.

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“They’re very disciplined people, they have cool heads, and we trust them with our lives, and our patients do, too,” Tucker said.


Not only are EMS personnel equipped to handle a myriad of treatments, the helicopters themselves are decked-out, too.


On each flight, a pilot, nurse and paramedic run to the call. They can add two adult patients on board plus infants, who are transported in an isolette.


Equipment on board includes an oxygen supply, fluids including blood, dressings, medications and two cardiac monitors, as well as anything else that might be needed for the run.


Brett Steffen, Parkview Samaritan flight services manager, said Samaritan helicopters are sent on “blind calls,” meaning EMS personnel are given bare-bones information about a call so as to not sway judgment about its severity.


For example, sometimes the age of the patient isn’t given. If it were, some personnel might rush more quickly to an infant patient, when in reality it isn’t as much of an emergency as it may seem.


The helicopters are used in place of ground ambulances usually for their speed, but sometimes for the severity of a call, and often in rural areas to transport victims to emergency services quickly.


More specifically, about 51% of flights are trauma-related — 40% of those to pick up patients from the scene of an injury and 60% to pick up from other facilities to take to Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne, according to a Parkview factsheet.

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The N2-Dauphin helicopters have twin jet engines, can fly up to three hours and up to 200 miles one way and on average go about 180 mph. 

 As the crow flies, that means a Samaritan helicopter can get from Parkview in Fort Wayne to Kendallville in about eight minutes.


In an ambulance, even going at fast speeds with emergency lights on, that trip might take 30 minutes by road.


“(Kendallville’s) paramedics are fine paramedics, but this flies 3 miles a minute instead of ground transport,” Tucker said.


That time saved makes a huge difference, especially when it comes to the “golden hour,” what medical staffers refer to as the hour between an injury and treatment to be able to get someone to life-saving emergency help.


Not only that, but Tucker said Samaritan helicopters are being used more often for strokes and heart attacks now, because the longer those patients wait for help, the more irreversible damage they have to their brains and hearts.


At the end of the day, each call is about saving someone, Tucker said.


“It’s nice to be able to take care of people when they need and help them, and it doesn’t always work, but more often than not, it does,” he said.

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