PennStar helicopter flies through sky to save lives

The helicopter crew provides medical help while in flight, transporting more than 200 patients to HUP each year. One moment, members of the PennStar helicopter crew are kicking back on the couch, watching college football and talking on the phone with family members. A minute later, they're on their way to the scene of an accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to transport a victim with serious head injuries to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's emergency room. "You have to be in a constant state of readiness," PennStar flight paramedic John Clark said. "You go from drinking a cup of coffee to a high-pressure environment with no transition time." Established in 1988, the PennStar Flight Program operates two helicopters that bring approximately 200 seriously injured patients to HUP's emergency room each month from accident scenes and other hospitals, providing medical assistance while in the air. The helicopters provide emergency medical transport within a five-state, 100-mile radius from Philadelphia, but most of their missions are within 30 miles of the city. They travel at about 150 miles per hour. One of the helicopters is based on the roof on HUP's Ravdin Building, a short distance away from the PennStar crew's 10th-floor headquarters, and operates from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. The second operates 24 hours a day from an airfield 12 miles north of the city. The PennStars pick up about half of their patients at accident scenes. Most of these patients are victims of car crashes, but some have been injured in industrial accidents. The other half of the PennStar missions involve transferring patients from other hospitals to HUP. These are typically patients with neurological or or cardiac problems that the sending hospital is not prepared to handle. The PennStar staff consists of nine flight nurses, nine flight paramedics and five pilots. One nurse, one paramedic and one pilot work each shift. PennStar flight nurse Sandra Myerson, a three-year veteran of the program, described in-flight nursing as "the most challenging of all jobs." "It requires excellent critical thinking skills and the ability to quickly asses an emergency situation," she said, pointing to the difficulties of keeping critically injured patients alive during the trip to HUP. PennStar crew members often encounter patients who are in such critical condition that no amount of medical care could save them, Myerson said. "It's hard when you know a patient is in bad shape and there really isn't anything you can do," she said. PennStar pilot Roy Eckrote, who has been with the program for almost a year, recalled an incident two months ago when PennStar was called to a car crash in Westchester, Pa., involving four seriously injured teenagers. PennStar crew members were able to save two of the victims, but the third went into cardiac arrest while the helicopter was in the air and was dead by the time it landed. The fourth died in the trauma bay at HUP. "It was sad, because they were so young and they had their whole lives ahead of them," Eckrote said. The critical injuries suffered by most PennStar patients makes the emotional side of the job particularly difficult, as crew members are forced to deal with losing an abnormally large number of patients. Clark pointed to the deaths of four PennStar patients within the span of one recent week. "It was a really tough week, but you have to get past it and move on," he said. Compounding the difficult tasks faced by the PennStar crew is the small amount of information they typically have while en route to an accident scene. Generally, the crew only knows the information on a particular incident contained in the initial call to 911, and must determine the condition of the victims after landing. The second part of their job is not much easier. Before PennStar can transport a patient from another hospital, physicians at the sending hospital must find a receiving physician and a bed for the patient at HUP. PennStar crew members listen in while doctors from the sending hospital give a report to the HUP physician on call during a given shift. They work with the two physicians to determine what can be done at the sending hospital and at HUP before the helicopter arrives, as well and how they will treat the patient during the flight. But while the job is difficult, PennStar crew members stress that is also provides its share of rewards. "There is a fundamental feeling that you are really helping people in their time of need and making a difference in their lives," Clark said. Myerson added that one of the best parts of her job is being able to visit recovering patients, many of whom were near death when they were brought to the emergency room. "When we visit patients to see how they are doing and family members are there, they are really appreciative that we helped saved the lives of their loved ones," she said.

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