Baldwin City residents were roused out of their homes Saturday afternoon by the sounds of sirens and a helicopter descending into an open field just north of Cool Cat Liquor, located at 215 Ames St.
Baldwin City Police Sgt. Gregg Schiffelbein said a Life Flight helicopter transferred one woman to a trauma center after reports she had fallen in the shower.
“That’s up to the medical staff on scene to make that call,” he said, referring to the request for a helicopter transfer.
Schiffelbein said it was a precautionary measure taken by Baldwin Emergency Medical Service responders because the woman is thought to be recovering at home now.
Eve Tolefree, division chief of quality services for Lawrence/Douglas County Fire and Medical, said Baldwin doesn’t have a designated landing area for scene flight helicopters.
“It just depends on where we are, both in the city and the county,” she said. “We typically will just land the helicopter anywhere where there’s no overhead obstructions and its not going to be a hazard to the surrounding community.”
Tolefree said Life Flight is just one service Douglas County uses to respond to requested scene flights.
“We tentatively kind of go down a list,” she said. “We use Life Star first, there’s Life Flight and Life Net as a backup. It just depends on the availability of which helicopter is closest and who’s available to come right now when we need them.”
Onlooker Clint Morgan said seeing the helicopter take off after the patient was loaded was very surreal.
“I got Life-Flighted one time a long time ago after a car wreck,” he said. “So it was kind of me seeing the other side of it.”
Tolefree said it’s not uncommon to have 10-12 scene flights per month in Douglas County. She said paramedics on scene follow protocols to determine if a patient needs to be transferred by flight. Flights are usually requested for people injured in automobile accidents or severe falls who endure trauma.
Patients are usually flown to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., or other designated trauma centers.
