LifeFlight Eagle officially began operations today at its new base, located at the Trenton Municipal Airport.
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LifeFlight Eagle officially began operations today at its new base, located at the Trenton Municipal Airport.
The base will support a Bell 407 helicopter and will be home to 16 new employees, who will fill the pilot, registered nurse and paramedic positions for each crew. The base will be staffed 24 hours a day.
Until now, the northwestern region of Missouri had the least air ambulance coverage in the state and relied primarily on LifeFlight Eagle to respond from their Kansas City and Blue Springs bases. The new base will cover a 12-county region, cutting response times from 30 or more minutes to less than 15 minutes for most of the service area.
Wright Memorial Hospital CEO John Woodrich said he is pleased to see the LifeFlight Eagle program expanded to the north.
“It is very exciting and beneficial for the people of this community to have air ambulance service available in our region,” Woodrich said. “We are fortunate to have this service and professional staff as a compliment to the existing health care providers in our area.”
Jim Johnson, CEO of Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe, said the expansion brings positive change to the region.
“For years, LifeFlight Eagle helicopters have been serving the area and their presence in the skies has been both a blessing and a symbol of reliability,” Johnson said. Now the whole region will be served with significantly faster response times and many lives will be impacted for the better.”
Director of Business Development Ruby Meher said LifeFlight Eagle personnel have been pleased with the efforts of the community as they prepared for the arrival of LifeFlight.
“We have been so impressed and grateful for such a warm reception from the Trenton community,” she said. “The planning and construction phase of this project was managed with great attention to detail and genuine consideration for our crews. Our thanks go out to the city of Trenton as well as to Greg Gibler, who put in so much time to finish the construction.”
The hangar features nearly 2,800 sq. ft. of new and remodeling living space for the crew and nearly 3,300 sq. ft. of climate controlled space for the helicopter.
Trenton Community Developer Sean Burge said the time and effort put in over the last year was a great community investment.
“The positive outcome of even one life saved because of shorter distances and faster responses time to the region makes everything worth it,” Burge said. “We’re very pleased to welcome LifeFlight Eagle to the community.
Residents of the region will be invited to tour the facility in the near future, with the time and date for the event to be announced.