February is Heart Health month, and a great time to remind everyone to learn hands-only CPR.

When someone suffers a cardiac arrest (the abrupt loss of heart function, breathing and consciousness), their survival depends on immediately receiving CPR from someone nearby.

Hands-only CPR is simple, and anyone (even older kids) can do it.

More than 70% of cardiac arrests occur at home, so if called on to perform CPR, you may be trying to save the life of a child, a spouse, a parent or a friend.

Read a story about a LifeFlight Eagle patient’s sudden cardiac arrest, and how his wife called on her CPR training to help save his life.

LifeFlight Eagle is proud to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Services (CAMTS) since 2001.

CAMTS is a peer review organization dedicated to improving patient care and transport safety by providing a dynamic accreditation process through the development of standards, education, and services. Every three years, CAMTS conducts an accreditation site visit at LifeFlight Eagle. This March, LifeFlight Eagle will have its triennial visit.

NOTICE

The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems will conduct an accreditation site visit of LifeFlight Eagle on March 7 & 8, 2022.

The purpose of the site visit will be to evaluate the program’s compliance with nationally established medical transport standards. The site visit results will be used to determine whether, and the conditions under which accreditation should be awarded to the program.

CAMTS accreditation standards deal with issues of patient care and safety of the transport environment. Anyone believing that he or she has pertinent or valid information about such matters may request a public information interview with the CAMTS site surveyors at the time of the site visit. Information presented at the interview will be carefully evaluated for relevance to the accreditation process. Requests for public information interviews must be made in writing and sent to CAMTS no later than 10 business days before the site survey begins. The request should also indicate the nature of the information to be provided during the interview. Such request should be addressed to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Commission will acknowledge such written requests in writing or by telephone and will inform the program of the request for an interview. The Commission will, in turn, notify the interviewee of the date, time and place of the meeting.

This notice is posted in accordance with CAMTS requirements and shall not be removed until the site visit is completed.

Date Posted: February 7, 2022

LifeFlight Eagle Flight Nurse Sean Gooding, 52, passed away in January 2022 after a long battle with melanoma.

As a way to remember and honor Sean, LifeFlight Eagle created the Sean Gooding Memorial Scholarship Fund designated for critical-care education.

Sean spent his entire career serving the community, where his dedication benefitted countless patients. Sean first worked as an EMT starting in 1988, and later worked as a firefighter/paramedic in Lawrence, KS, before taking his first flight paramedic position in Lawrence. After attending nursing school, he went on to work as a nurse at hospitals and flight programs in South Dakota and Oregon before returning to Kansas.

Sean joined LifeFlight Eagle in 2016, where he worked full time at our Harrisonville base. He later switched to PRN after taking a leadership position at a community hospital in eastern Kansas.

Our hearts go out to Sean’s family and loved ones—especially his two sons, ages 23 and 21, and daughter, 17. Please join us in keeping them in your thoughts and prayers. You can read his obituary here.

If you are interested in contributing to the Sean Gooding Memorial Scholarship Fund, we invite you to click here.

You can help save the life of a family member, co-worker or friend.

Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke. Every 4 minutes, someone dies as a result.

You can help change that.

When treated immediately, many stroke patients make a full recovery. It starts with quickly recognizing the symptoms, and that’s where you come in.

BE FAST. It’s a simple pneumonic that can help you recognize that someone may be having a stroke.

B – Balance. Sudden loss of balance or coordination, or a sense of vertigo, like the room is spinning
E – Eyes. Sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes
F – Face. Sudden weakness on one side of face, or a facial droop
A – Arm. Sudden arm or leg weakness or numbness
S – Speech. Sudden slurred speech or trouble speaking
T – Time to call 9-1-1.

LifeFlight Eagle is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Why does that make a difference?

Simply put, it’s our long-term commitment to serving the community. We were founded right here in Kansas City more than 40 years ago. This is our home. We take seriously the trust this region places in us to safely care for patients at their most vulnerable times. It’s the driving force behind everything we do.

Many air-medical programs (even some branded as part of a university system) are actually operated to benefit multi-billion-dollar conglomerates that are out-of-state and owned by private equity investors. They’re notorious for opening and closing bases while chasing profits. In fact, more than 40 bases were shut down in the past 12 months by these companies and re-opened in a different location. Ultimately, their commitment is to investors, not to the local community.

As a non-profit, LifeFlight Eagle focuses on long-term sustainability, meeting the current and future needs of our region, and continually innovating in pursuit of great outcomes for patients on their darkest days.

It’s why we’re expanding our ground critical-care transport program, which allows our highly trained medical teams to provide critically ill and injured patients with intensive care during hospital-to-hospital transfers, even when we’re unable to fly because of inclement weather.

It’s why we’re significantly expanding our outreach education program that provides thousands of hours of training and education for emergency personnel each year, helping them retain licenses and certifications, learn new skills, and take even better care of the citizens in their communities.

We couldn’t do this without the help of our members and our donors.

Providing critical-care transport is expensive. We have multi-million-dollar helicopters and a highly trained staff on duty at each of our bases 24/7. To cover expenses, we rely on revenue from patient transports (the vast majority of which comes from insurance reimbursement), as well as our membership program and private donations.

For years, we have been committed to minimizing the out-of-pocket expense our patients might owe for LifeFlight Eagle transport. Nearly 20 years ago we became in-network with the region’s largest health insurer, and we have become in-network with others since. In 2008, we launched our membership program because of our concern for patients’ out-of-pocket cost for uncovered portions of their transport. Surprise billing for LifeFlight Eagle transport is not an issue our members face.

We’ve seen for-profit competitors come and leave Kansas City during the past 25 years. LifeFlight Eagle isn’t going anywhere. We’re local. We’re here to stay. And we’re here for you.

Winter weather can be the best flying weather for EMS helicopter pilots.

On good days dense, stable air masses create smooth flying, better aircraft performance and less traffic.

Unfortunately, winter flights also involve hidden dangers not always apparent to non-aviation personnel. These hidden dangers can have catastrophic consequences if not properly accounted for. As a result, pilots and air crews must be conservative during winter months to prevent inadvertently placing themselves, their aircraft and their patient in dangerous situations.

LifeFlight Eagle is expanding its service and adding its first ground critical care ambulance in the Kansas City region.

The ambulance will conduct only interfacility hospital-to-hospital transports, and will initially be used only when the organization’s aircraft are unable to fly because of inclement weather.

“Creating a ground transport option helps us fill a critical gap in the service we provide,” said Jeff Willhite, LifeFlight Eagle’s vice president of program operations. “Our rural hospitals have extremely sick patients they need to get to the city, regardless of what weather conditions might be. Now we can still serve those hospitals and their patients’ need for critical care, even if we aren’t able to provide the speed of an aircraft.”

2,178 Americans will have a stroke today. 365 people will die as a result. Countless others will be left with life-altering disability.

Strokes are the 4th leading cause of death in our country. More than twice as many American women will die from a stroke this year than will die from breast cancer.

These numbers are staggering, but medical technology has advanced dramatically in recent years. Many strokes can now be reversed if symptoms are caught early and patients receive treatment immediately.

Each year, LifeFlight Eagle flies hundreds of stroke patients from small communities to comprehensive stroke centers that can provide life-saving care or surgical intervention.

On Wednesday, Dec. 7, LifeFlight Eagle and the City of Chillicothe broke ground on LifeFlight Eagle’s new north-central Missouri base at the Chillicothe Airport.

“We’re thrilled to get this project underway and to become a bigger part of this community,” said Roxanne Shanks, LifeFlight Eagle’s CEO, at a celebration luncheon that followed a frigid shovel ceremony. “This community has been so welcoming.”

“We’re extremely grateful to the City of Chillicothe and to all of you for making this happen,” Shanks said to the room full of city officials, emergency responders, community and business leaders and LifeFlight Eagle personnel. “We’re truly blessed to have great partners to work with at the city, at the hospital, and at the Fire Department. We look forward to working with everyone here even further in the future as we explore ways to positively impact the community.”

Last week, the city council awarded the contract to construct the hangar and crew quarters to Burman Construction out of Ozark, Mo., which had submitted the low bid. Construction will begin on the facility within the next 10 days, and is expected to be completed in August, 2017.

LifeFlight Eagle recently participated in a dedication event for a new helipad that community members built for the residents of Hale, Mo., and surrounding communities.

LifeFlight Eagle Flight Nurse Butch LeRoy, left, Hale City Lodge member Lloyd Lyons, Hale Lions Club members Bob Maddox, Gene Foster and Harold Shatto, and LifeFlight Eagle Flight Paramedic Damon Akers prepare for the ribbon cutting of the new helipad.