Hillcrest Medical Center In Tulsa Now Capable Of Transporting NICU Babies By Helicopter

Hillcrest Medical Center is now one of only three hospitals in Oklahoma that can transport NICU babies by helicopter and has a team on standby 24/7.

Before launching the program last month, Saint Francis in Tulsa and OU Children's in Oklahoma City were the only two hospitals offering the service.

NICU nurses at Hillcrest said time and efficiency are huge in saving a little one's life.

"If I can get to them sooner, I can give them a positive pressure that's less invasive and open up those air sacs for them and cause less harm and less interventions and less scariness for that family," said Alexandria Richards, NICU Clinical Lead.

Up until recently, nurses had to travel hundreds of miles by ambulance to pick up a newborn needing their care.

"Those level fours were the only flight teams too and so if you have those rural areas, those level 2 babies also went there. Those level 3 babies that we can take care of also went there and so they took up that bed space. So those babies that needed that cardiac surgeon or needed ECMO were flown out of state," said Alexandria.

"Level 4 has cardiovascular services. Cardiothoracic surgeries, surgical services and ECMO," said Grace Switzer, Assist. Director of Nursing over NICU and Labor & Delivery.

The new program at Hillcrest has taken off. Every time the helicopter leaves the Helipad, it heads somewhere to save a life. When it returns with a baby on board, nurses are ready to rush through those doors, get the little one out of the chopper and into the NICU.

"We're able to do it. We've done it. And we know we can do it well," said Switzer.

"I was in the military for 35 years. We were on a totally different mission, and now we can save lives so that's kind of special," said Jimmy Richards, Base Lead Pilot Tulsa Life Flight in Pryor.

Jimmy Richards said the EC 130 helicopter travels at two miles a minute.

The transport team that includes a single pilot, a flight nurse and a respiratory therapist loads up about 300 pounds worth of equipment and puts on their fire-retardant flight suits and helmet.

Being a part of the group requires a lot of training.

"My role is stabilization, communication and reassuring that family," said Alexandria.

"Not everybody can transport. It's a higher specialty care nursing. You have to have competencies that are checked off on. You have to have kind of proven that you're able to go out pretty autonomously. Our amazing physicians support us from here and they do a lot of phone communication and gathering information on the patient and giving orders but that nurse and that respiratory therapist have to be very, very strong in their skillset to be able to go out and be the only two people providing the hands on care," said Switzer.

On December 30, the first call came. To Alexandria Richards surprise, it was her father-in-law flying.

"Texted me from the helipad and was like, 'I'm here, where are you,'" said Alexandria.

"This is the first time I've watched her in action too, so I went in and watched her package up the baby, do an IV on a baby about that long and it was pretty special to see her skill set," said Jimmy Richards.

"Knowing the pilot that's in that seat, that's literally not only taking care of me but the baby and my fellow person that is with me, is very important," said Alexandria.