TAKING FLIGHT: AIR AMBULANCE SERVICES PROVIDE VITAL HELP FOR SERIOUSLY ILL AND INJURED PEOPLE

The Lifebeat helicopter prepared to land atop Southeast Missouri Hospital.

After 10 years, Cape Girardeau's two air medical services have completed more than 8,700 missions.

LifeBeat Air Medical Services and Air Evac Lifeteam provide help to critically injured accident victims and seriously ill patients.

The two medical helicopters, carrying sophisticated medical equipment and medics trained in the skills of saving lives, average more than two missions a day.

A decade ago, when two services -- LifeBeat at Southeast Missouri Hospital and Air Evac at St. Francis Medical Center -- inaugurated service within days of each other, it created a furor of public criticism, with claims that one medical helicopter was too many, much less two.

That was 10 years, 11,066 requests, 8,787 missions and more than a million medical air miles ago.

The need for two air medical services is evident, and even with two services, some requests go unanswered because both services "are on missions."

"We're pleased with the success of the air ambulance service," said James Wente, administrator at Southeast Missouri Hospital, where a total of 4,694 missions have been flown in 10 years.

Wente recalled the day LifeBeat made its maiden flight.

"It was Aug. 3, 1987," he said. "We felt then that the program would be regional in scope. Southeast Missouri has grown to be a regional facility, and the air ambulance service has grown with it. Both will continue to grow."

LifeBeat Air Medical Services dedicated a new BO 105 twin-engine craft in June 1996 and provides service over a 150-mile radius. During the past decade it has flown more than 700,000 miles.

"Air Evac," said Jim Sexton, CEO and president of St. Francis Medical Center, "has enabled us to provide a quicker emergency response in travel time, either to a scene or outlying hospitals, to real levels of service that patients need, whether in Cape Girardeau, St. Louis or Memphis."

Air Evac, which has flown 4,093 missions, provides a "self-contained" operation, which means it can refuel on-site and take off again immediately.

"I feel comfortable with the service that Air Evac offers for this area," said Sexton. "Air Evac has expanded their services in the area, which enables them to provide our trauma service with a higher degree of backup and level of service." The Air Evac team for Cape Girardeau is made up of 34 people.

Air Evac accepts requests from within a 70-mile radius of Cape Girardeau but transports patients to hospitals outside that area, said Jack Bates of Air Evac Lifeteam, headquartered at West Plains.

Air Evac and LifeBeat have numerous contacts -- more than 300 each -- with hospitals, ambulance crews and first responder organizations.

A big portion of patient transports for both air services is for trauma victims -- 40 percent of St. Francis' calls and 30 percent of Southeast's. Other reasons for transports for St. Francis are cardiac (35 percent), non-trauma neurological (10 percent), non-trauma surgical (5 percent), obstetrical (3 percent) and other reasons (7 percent).

Other reasons for LifeBeat missions are cardiac (37 percent), medical cases (30) and pediatric cases (3 percent).

Emergency medical personnel know that patient care within the "golden hour" is crucial. Statistics reveal that care during the first 60 minutes can prevent 20 to 30 percent of potential deaths.

Pat Pennington, emergency services nurse manager, is a member of the original LifeBeat Air Medical flight team. The team has 33 members.

"Air ambulances let us go where some ground ambulances can't go," said Pennington.

No less than three LifeBeat pilots have landed on barges in the middle of the Mississippi River to airlift patients to hospitals.

"People who work with the air ambulance service face some tough situations," said Pennington, "but it's a challenging and satisfying career."

James Prince, a pilot for LifeBeat since 1987, agrees.

"I've been a pilot of one type or another since 1968," said Prince, who was one of the pilots to land on a coal barge. "I like it. It's a great job for a helicopter pilot."

Prince, who had been on hundreds of flights, said he could recall everyone of them.

"I'm not surprised that two air ambulance services have succeeded in a service area this large," he said. "I think the need for two choppers is evident."

Aeromedical transportation has been around more than 125 years.

It all started in 1870, when men wounded during the siege of Paris, France, were airlifted out of battlefields by balloons. During World War II, aeromedical airlift operations by fixed-wing aircraft became highly organized systems, developed from special techniques in both aviation and medicine.

Helicopters were first used during the Korean War and made famous by the "M*A*S*H" television program.