The team that staffs the new Wings Air Rescue base at Laughlin Memorial Hospital was officially introduced to Greeneville business leaders on Monday afternoon during a Greene County Partnership “Business After Hours” event.
Held in the lobby of the Laughlin Center for Women’s Health, the 5:30 p.m. event drew more than 75 people and included tours of the Wings II helicopter that has been based at Laughlin Memorial Hospital since late August.
Three lucky participants also won in a drawing the opportunity to take demonstration flights in the Bell 407 Wings II helicopter.
The event began with a welcome from Noah Roark, Laughlin Memorial Hospital’s director of human resources and marketing.
“Laughlin Memorial Hospital and its 765 healthcare team members would like to welcome everyone to our special Greene County Partnership Business After Hours program featuring Wings Air Rescue,” Roark said.
“Laughlin and its emergency healthcare team is very pleased with our association with Wings Air Rescue and its highly skilled pilots and professional healthcare team,” he said.
Roark noted that, effective Aug. 31, Laughlin Memorial Hospital became a full-time base for the Wings II Wings Air Rescue helicopter.
“We feel this association with Wings Air Rescue will greatly improve our hospital’s ability to better serve the emergency healthcare needs of this area and those of the citizens [who live] within a 125-mile radius [of Greeneville],” Roark said.
He said Laughlin Memorial Hospital wished to thank Mountain States Health Alliance and its administrative staff for their assistance with establishing a Wings Air Rescue base here.
Mountain States Health Alliance operates the Johnson City Medical Center, which is the destination to which many seriously ill and injured patients are transported by Wings Air Rescue helicopters.
One Wings helicopter is based at the Johnson City Medical Center. Another is based in Kentucky.
However, Wings helicopters also often transport patients to both the Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport and to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.
Vice President Speaks
Following Roark’s remarks, Mountain States Health Alliance Vice President Kathryn Wallin Wilhoit, a Greene County native, addressed the audience.
“I actually grew up in Greene County and lots of my family [members] still live here,” she said. “It’s so exciting to be here in Greeneville and to be part of Wings Air Rescue and to assist with bringing this great service to Greene County.”
Wilhoit said she has been associated with Wings Air Rescue since its inception in 1995. “It is so exciting now to have Laughlin Memorial Hospital as a part of our Wings Air Rescue program,” she said. “I know, without a doubt, that our Wings team brings excellence in care to the patients that they serve. Our pilots are very expert and everyone on the team is very, very interested in safety.”
24-Hour Coverage
The Wings Team, which is about 16 people, includes four crews, that are on duty at a different times to provide around-the-clock coverage.
Wilhit noted that a Wings helicopter crew includes a pilot, a registered (flight) nurse and a paramedic.
Wilhoit then introduced Jason Hefner, director of Wings Air Rescue. Hefner then thanked local emergency officials for their assistance over the years and introduced individually to the audience the members of the Wings II team who are now based in Greeneville.
“We’ve been working with Greene County-Greeneville EMS [Emergency Medical Services] and Greene County’s communities for the last 12 years,” Hefner said. “Over the past 12 years, we’ve worked closely with Mr. Robert Sayne [director of Greene County-Greeneville EMS] and we want to thank Robert for all he has done for us.”
Hefner said Wings Air Rescue stresses both patient safety and crew safety in its operations.
“We want to deliver the best, most professional patient care and get patients to the hospital as quickly as possible,” he said.
During a later interview, Hefner said Wings Air Rescue’s goal is to launch a helicopter within five minutes of being notified of an emergency situation.
Flight Described
Prior to the Monday afternoon event, Wings Air Rescue officials arranged for a Greeneville Sun reporter and photographer to take a short flight aboard the Wings II helicopter.
Staffing the Bell 407 helicopter were pilot Charles Bumpas, of Rogersville, and flight nurse Sheila Thompson, of Elizabethton.
Prior to the flight, Bumpas and Thompson delivered a safety briefing to their two passengers.
The interior of the helicopter proved to be “cozy” with flight nurse Thompson and two passengers seated behind the pilot, who occupied the right front seat.
The stretcher on which a patient would have ridden had a patient been aboard occupied much of the left side of the helicopter extending into the area that would have included the left front seat in a helicopter not equipped for medical evacuation duties.
Communication among the helicopter’s occupants was limited to use of voice-activated microphones and an interphone system.
While preparing to fly from the helipad outside Laughlin Memorial Hospital, pilot Bumpas and flight nurse Thompson stressed that no conversation should take place during take-off and landing, so as not to interfere with radio communications between the pilot and the Wings Air Rescue base.
After pilot Bumpas started the helicopter’s turbine engine and its four-bladed “rotors” began to whirl overhead, noise increased and it quickly became evident why earphones and microphones would be needed.
Before liftoff, flight nurse Thompson told pilot Bumpas by interphone that everything was clear to the left of the helicopter and he replied that everything was clear to the helicopter’s right.
The ensuring vertical takeoff from the helipad was so smooth that it was difficult to believe the machine was airborne. Soon, the helicopter was circling 1,000 feet above Laughlin Memorial Hospital.
Bumpas, who also flies OH-58 observation helicopters for the Tennessee Army National Guard, said he received his flight training while in the U.S. military. He said he has been flying for seven years.
Flight nurse Thompson said she has been flying with Wings Air Rescue for five years and was an emergency room nurse for many years before that.
After a brief orbit of downtown Greeneville, the helicopter returned to the helipad as smoothly as it had departed minutes earlier. Pilot Bumpas noted that the Wings II helicopter can fly for up to two-and-a-half hours on a single tank of fuel. “We normally don’t go beyond two hours without refueling,” he said.
He noted that the helicopter cruises at about 150 mph and can reach the Johnson City Medical Center from Greene County points as distant as Interstate 81’s Exit 23 (the Bulls Gap exit) within 15 minutes.
Flight nurse Thompson said the Wings II helicopter refuels and replenishes medical oxygen at the Greeneville-Greene County Municipal Airport.
