Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital celebrated its new critical care air ambulance service for babies in their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Thursday evening. There have been a handful of Apollo MedFlights since the transportation service launched Sept. 21.
"Some of the transports have been infants that were critically ill that required a lot of management," said Kelly Clements, BSA NICU medical director. "We're really proud to see the hundreds of hours of training and planning that have gone into this really come to fruition."
The Beecchraft King Air 90 fixed wing transport isolette is equipped with state-of-the-art technology that provides warmth or cooling and monitors a baby's vital signs during transport. Additionally, it has the only Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist system in the Panhandle. Previously the hospital did not have a NICU transportation aircraft and had to contract out services when needed.
"NICU babies require transportation with a specially trained and certified critical care specialty team. Babies under five kilos are too small to be transported by a traditional adult or pediatric transport team," Clements said. "This has been something that we've been planning for about a year and a half. We wanted to make sure that everything was in place when we had the official launch party; we also wanted to bundle it with our 20th NICU anniversary celebration."
With Apollo MedFlight, the BSA NICU transportation team can fly to rural communities to transport babies from area hospitals to the Level III designated BSA NICU.
“Although it’s recommended for high-risk pregnancies to deliver at a hospital with a (NICU), sometimes it’s inevitable that a birth happens in a hospital without a high level of neonatal care,” said BSA NICU and Women’s Services Director, Patty Mathies. “That’s why the need for specially trained personnel is important to ensure that our areas tiniest patients are transported safely to BSA.”
The service is also used to transport neonatal babies from BSA to Level IV neonatal hospitals in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma City, usually within a 300 to 400 mile range.
"We're looking at about a 30 minute flight time to get to a destination that normally would take three hours or more by ground," said Cristina Vasquez, BSA NICU nurse manager and flight nurse. "This is exciting. We're excited to help save baby's lives in the community and out in the region."
In addition to the crew -- a NICU physician or nurse practitioner, nurse, respiratory therapist and Apollo flight crew member -- Vasquez said the larger space allows for the accommodation of bringing a parent along for the ride.
She said, "The nice thing about flying on a fixed wing is that we are able to take a parent with us. Normally in an ambulance or helicopter, you're limited to space, you're only allowed to have your crew members in there. With us being on a plane, we're able to bring at least one of the parents with us so they can stay with their baby."
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