Local landing

The Pine Haven first responders, including the volunteer fire department and EMS, attended a Life Flight training exercise last Saturday morning. Fire chief Bob Rudichar explains why this class is important to them.

“This will give our fire department an opportunity to talk directly to the pilot and have them explain to us their operational standards and policies so that we know what he wants us to do when they come in to keep everybody safe,” he says.

Coordinator Don Lancaster adds, “We’ve had numerous incidents out here in Pine Haven where we’ve actually had to use Life Flight and before it was kind of make it up as you go along.”

Black Hills Life Flight pilot Chris Miller brought the craft down lightly on one of two landing areas provided for this specific purpose by landowner and long-time volunteer fireman Vince Waters.

After handshakes and greetings, Miller and Black Hills Life Flight manager and class instructor Teresa Farnsworth were driven to the class at town hall and the session got underway. Lancaster says the training was interesting and informative: “[It] gave everyone a better understanding of how to efficiently coordinate our activities with those of Life Flight. Ultimately, the patient is the one who will benefit the most from this type of training.”

EMS president Dusty Downey shares this view: “Any time we have a chance to do a training like this, to boost our skills, it’s going to be beneficial for all of us and I think that having the availability of Life Flight to be able to come here and having things work smoothly and us able to transition from our ambulance into the helicopter smoothly in as little time as possible is going to increase the best outcome for our patents – it’s about getting the patient the best care they can possibly get.”

Volunteer EMT Barb Hardy expounds, “We’ve already had two flight for life situations here last year. From the time we get to the incident until the patient gets to a hospital is critical. [Life Flight] cuts that time tremendously. Our goal is to serve our community and give them the best service that we can and keep our training up.”