Published Tue, Dec 4, 2007
By DAN HILLIARD
dhilliard@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5531

Less than a month after an emergency helicopter rushed to Marine Recruit Depot Parris Island to pick up an injured recruit, depot emergency personnel brushed up on those same helicopter skills Monday alongside pilots and paramedics from Savannah Memorial Health University Medical Center.

Some of the depot's 53 civilian firefighters and Marine military policemen practiced setting up a landing zone and ambulance routes for the emergency helicopter, which can reach the depot from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in about 20 minutes, according to Dwight Charleston, assistant fire chief with the Parris Island Fire Department.

"It's something we do on a regular basis, so it's kind of a refresher," he said.

Charleston said LifeStar One, the hospital's sole helicopter, has been dispatched to Parris Island about eight times in the last 10 years, he said.

The helicopter crew services a 150-mile area around Savannah, annually flying about 600 people to the medical center, said pilot Mike Sharp.

In mid-November, a helicopter crew flew to the depot to transport a recruit who'd been injured in a fall during the Crucible, a simulated combat exercise Marine recruits must endure to graduate boot camp, Charleston said.

The value of a helicopter is speed, he said. Seriously injured people must be in an operating room within an hour, dubbed the "Golden Hour" by paramedics, to have a good chance of survival, said Charleston.

Since Savannah Memorial Health University Medical Center has the nearest trauma center, it's vital depot emergency personnel are drilled in helicopter procedure about once a year, he said.

Sharp, a former Army pilot, has been working 12-hour days every other week for the past 17 years for the medical center, he said.

Each month, Sharp said he flies about 50 people to the center, most of them with life-threatening injuries. The helicopter can hold one critically injured patient or two with less serious injuries in addition to a pilot, a nurse and a paramedic, he said.

The helicopter itself can be life-threatening, however, Sharp said.

On Sunday, a helicopter owned by Omnihealth, the company behind LifeStar One, crashed into power lines in Alabama. The pilot was uninjured, but the helicopter was destroyed, Sharp said.

Sunday's crash marked the fourth Omnihealth helicopter accident this year, he said.

LifeStar One paramedic Brian Duncan said the support a helicopter crew receives from emergency personnel on the ground can make or break a call, so training regularly with depot crews is a top priority to ensure the helicopter crew's safety and the patient's quick transport.

"It's all one big encompassing thing," he said. "We want to make sure we're all on the same sheet of music."

Duncan also said he sees a parallel between the rapid-response capabilities of the Marine Corps and his own helicopter crew.

"You kind of see people at their worst, so it can be sad at times," he said. "But you get to see good outcomes, too. It's definitely worthwhile."

http://www.beaufortgazette.com/local_news/story/6750555p-6020667c.html