New helicopter added to HUP rescue service

The Medical Center has purchased a second helicopter to expand its PennSTAR medevac program. The second chopper will operate from Montgomery County -- the location of most trauma cases serviced by the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- and will be on alert 24 hours a day, HUP officials announced last week. PennSTAR's current helicopter, based at a helipad on the hospital roof, will see its alert time cut to 12 hours a day from 24, according to PennSTAR Administrator William Krasner. Because the second helicopter will fly out of Montgomery County, it will reach trauma victims quickly without having to go from Philadelphia to the suburbs. "Having this second aircraft will enable us to dramatically decrease the response time," explained William Schwab, chief of the Division of Traumatology and Surgical Critical Care at the Medical Center. PennSTAR serves the Philadelphia region in two ways, Krasner said. It provides "pre-hospital care" -- emergency medicine to trauma victims en route to the hospital -- and "critical care transportation" -- transferring acutely ill or injured patients from one hospital to another. The only other medical centers in the area with helicopter service are a hospital in Brandywine, Pa., and another in southern New Jersey. Since PennSTAR's inception in 1988, administrators have noticed that most trauma cases occur not in Philadelphia, but the surrounding counties, with Montgomery as the leader. "You don't need a helicopter in West Philadelphia per se," Krasner said. Though the helicopters have a range of 150 miles and service a radius of 100 miles, the new helicopter will be placed in Wings Field in Whitpain Township to give it faster access to the Medical Center's core trauma areas. The helicopters do not work alone. According to PennSTAR flight nurse Bob Higgins, helicopter crews must coordinate their rescues with ground crews. Higgins recalled a recent car accident victim whose life was saved by this coordination. The victim, who had been trapped under a car and had a collapsed lung, was near death from suffocation. The ground crew kept the victim's airway open and informed PennSTAR of his injuries before the helicopter arrived. As a result, Higgins's crew, upon arrival, was able to decompress the victim's lung -- by sticking a needle in his chest to remove trapped air -- and take him quickly to HUP.