Life Flight crews, experienced, busy in the region.
 
Any Life Flight helicopter or mobile ICU is much more than ambulance, the area director explained to Lima Rotary Club Monday.
Brian Anderson, flight paramedic and EMS coordinator for St. Rita’s Life Flight and Mobile Life, spoke to the club, detailing how Life Flight in this region works.
Life Flight operates helicopters on four different bases and mobile intensive care units on three bases in Northwest Ohio, Anderson said. It also operates Life Flight in partnership with Parkview Samaritan Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Life Flight in Northwest Ohio transports 5,000 patients a year; 2,000 of those are by helicopter and 3,000 are by ground. Also, 25 percent of the flights are from accident scenes.
Life Flight has been available in the region since Dr. Frank Foss started the program in 1979 at St. Vincent Hospital in Toledo.
Each crew consists of a pilot, registered nurse and paramedic. They are experienced before they are hired and must maintain multiple certifications. They are directed by dispatchers and don’t need to communicate with airports unless they are flying above the clouds. Life Flight crews also partner and train with other specialty teams in the region, including bomb squads and dive teams, Anderson said.
While helicopter crews get the notoriety, mobile ICU crews have a more difficult job, Anderson believes.
“These are all very sick or very injured patients,” Anderson said. “When you’re in a helicopter, that’s probably a 20 minute flight. The mobile ICU is truly an intensive care unit on wheels, and you’ll be a patient in that vehicle for one to three hours.”
In other Rotary business Monday:
The club inducted five new members: St. Rita’s Health Partners CEO Bob Baxter, City of Lima Community Development Director Susan Crotty, Cowan Realtors Realtor Shelly Diepenbrock, Soldiers of Honor Boxing Gym Director Aaron McLaurine, Goodwill Easter Seals Regional Director of Program Services Beca Sheidler.
Members should have received their ballots for new executive committee and foundation board members. They are due by March 17.
The Four-Way Speech Contest will be at 9 a.m. Saturday at Lima Senior High School, featuring nine speakers.
Past President David Runk is looking for volunteers to help with updating a booklet about the club. The last update was in 2005.