Marijuana may be legal in Missouri, but driving high isn’t.

Marijuana impairs your driving skills, reaction time and decision-making ability, and dramatically increases your chance of being involved in an accident, injuring yourself or injuring others.

Here are some statistics that could help illustrate the dangers:

1. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), marijuana is the most commonly identified drug among drivers involved in fatal crashes.
2. A study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that drivers who had recently used marijuana were involved in twice as many accidents as drivers who had not used the drug.
3. The same study found that the use of marijuana can impair a driver's ability to track moving objects, make quick decisions, and respond to emergencies.
4. A study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that marijuana can significantly impair a driver's performance on tasks such as lane tracking, divided attention, and coordination.
5. A review of studies published in the journal Addiction found that the use of marijuana increases the risk of being involved in a motor vehicle accident by 20-30%.

These statistics demonstrate the dangers of driving under the influence of marijuana and the need for increased education and awareness on this issue. It's important to remember that driving under the influence of any drug, including marijuana, is illegal and puts everyone on the road at risk.

Make good choices. Don't drive while high. Don't get in a car with someone who is high or under the influence of any substance. And keep your friends who may be impaired from getting behind the wheel. 

As a non-profit helicopter ambulance program, LifeFlight Eagle responds to hundreds of traumatic vehicle accidents in rural communities surrounding Kansas City each year. Many of them happen on Missouri’s roadways. We see first-hand the devastating consequences that result when drivers’ careless behavior results in injury or death to themselves, their passengers, or other motorists.

More than 90 percent of fatal accidents on Missouri’s roadways can be attributed to human factors. Whether caused by aggressive, distracted or impaired drivers, the consequences are compounded when drivers and passengers are not properly restrained.

We want to help change that. Funded in part through a Destination Safe grant program, LifeFlight Eagle is producing a series of short videos to encourage safe driving behaviors. You can help by sharing these videos when you see them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and elsewhere.

Most importantly, do your part to help by setting an example: Always buckle up. Put your phone down. Never drive impaired. Don’t be in a hurry. And for those with kids in your car, remember they watch your every move and will learn their driving behavior from you.

Together we can saveMoLives.

Learn more at:

Destination Safe

Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety

Show Me Zero

As a non-profit helicopter ambulance program, LifeFlight Eagle responds to hundreds of traumatic accidents in rural communities surrounding Kansas City each year. Many of those happen on Missouri’s roadways. We see first-hand the devastating consequences that result when drivers’ careless behavior results in injury or death to themselves, their passengers, or other motorists.

More than 90 percent of fatal accidents on Missouri’s roadways can be attributed to human factors. Whether caused by aggressive, distracted or impaired drivers, the consequences are compounded when drivers and passengers are not properly restrained.

That’s why LifeFlight Eagle has partnered with Destination Safe and the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety to create a campaign to improve awareness and encourage safe behaviors when on Missouri roads.

Watch for our series of videos that will be published in the next few weeks. Like them, share them, tag your loved ones, comment with your stories. The more we engage around these topics, the more people will see them and the more lives we can save.

If you don't already, like, follow and subscribe to all our social media channels:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

TikTok

YouTube

This video campaign is made possible in part by a grant program through the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety and Destination Safe.

Attention bourbon fans: 

Buffalo Trace Distillery’s charitable giving program has granted LifeFlight Eagle a selection of highly sought-after bourbons from the W.L. Weller family to raffle as a charity fundraiser. 

Funds will be utilized in support of LifeFlight Eagle’s outreach education program to provide clinical education to emergency personnel in the communities we serve. 

Winners will be drawn during a live online broadcast Friday, Nov. 25.

Click here to buy your $1 charity raffle tickets now!

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.