![]() ![]() The mood is laidback and quiet now, but at any moment a call can come in, and the team can be up in the air in less than five minutes. “There are some people here that I trust more than my family,” said flight paramedic Abby Detloff, holding a stack of medical charts she’s about to review. Flight paramedics get ready to bring a patient aboard MEDUCARE 1. A row of four brown leather chairs in the break room is a popular hangout. On any given shift, mission control at Charleston International Airport general aviation will consist of upward of 10 people. The MEDUCARE team consists of 26 members – a combination of nurses, medics, therapists and pilots – broken into adult and pediatric teams. “There is no such thing as a day off for us.” “If we had one of those neon ‘OPEN’ signs, it would have burned out a long time ago,” said Junius Frederick, Med-Trans program director. Whether by ambulance or helicopter, MEDUCARE – in a partnership with Med-Trans, a Texas-based national air medical provider – is at the ready, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, serving the entire state of South Carolina and parts of both Georgia and North Carolina. It was that mindset that led to the idea of MEDUCARE: MUSC’s emergency response team available for patients in need of urgent medical intervention because of severe, life-threatening or potentially disabling conditions. That achievement inspired leadership to think of more innovative ways to serve its patients. In 1984, the Department of Health and Environmental Control designated MUSC the state’s first Level 1 trauma center qualified to treat the most critically ill or seriously injured patients. No days off Flight nurses load a patient on the helipad of a regional hospital so that he can be transported to MUSC. Flight nurse Mary Springer, RN, sits aboard MEDUCARE 1 en route to pick up a patient for an inter-facility transport. It will be the longest two hours of their lives. They climb into their car to make the drive to Charleston, not knowing if they’ll ever seen their son alive again. These three – along with the staff back at MUSC Children’s Hospital – are this child’s best shot at survival.Īs the helicopter becomes smaller on the horizon, the boy’s parents wipe away their tears. Sitting just a few feet away, on the other side of a solid partition, is pilot Mike Ramsey. ![]() They give him nebulized albuterol through a face mask and carefully monitor his vital signs during the 80-mile flight. If untreated, they could possibly lead to cardiac arrest – and death. Inside the well-designed, yet tight interior of the aircraft, Burke and registered respiratory therapist Jeff Kaiser administer care for the boy, who is having acute respiratory problems. I’m just thinking, ‘What do I need to do to help this kid?’” ![]() “But in the moment, I’m not focused on that. “I can’t even begin to imagine what mom and dad are going through when we leave with their child,” explains MUSC pediatric flight nurse Pam Burke, RN. Inside, a flight nurse, a respiratory therapist and a pilot have been entrusted with the life of their 6-year-old son, who is being evacuated to MUSC Children’s Hospital with life-threatening symptoms. Rising above, in streaks of electric blue and white, is a Eurocopter EC135 P2+ helicopter. As they clutch one another, their gaze is fixed on the sky. A mother and father stand in a quiet parking lot in rural Hampton County. As parents, nothing could prepare them for a moment like this. ![]()
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