Jackson Hill had his summer planned out. He was working out, getting ready for his senior football season at Lee's Summit High School. The 17-year-old had a well-paying job with a moving company that helped him bulk up for his starting spot as an outside linebacker. He had just finished football camp and was looking forward to a little time off.
Instead, he spent the summer fighting for his life.
Because Jean and Jim Bishop were LifeFlight Eagle members, they owed nothing out-of-pocket for the flight that helped save Jim’s life after he suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed.
Jim Bishop came home from work in Chillicothe early on Nov. 30 because he wasn’t feeling well. Ten minutes later, he collapsed at the bottom of the stairs — his heart stopped.
His wife, Jean, heard him fall and ran to Jim, who was gasping for air, barely breathing.
She called 911 and started CPR.
Cleatus Burnine was feeling achy and sore like he was coming down with the flu, so he went to see his doctor.
Burnine, of Richmond, Mo., said he didn't think much of it when his doctor told him to go to Ray County Memorial Hospital to get an electrocardiograph or an EKG.
"I go regularly to North Kansas City Hospital to get checked out ever since I had my [heart] stents three years ago," Burnine said.
But within minutes of arriving at the hospital, physicians determined that Burnine was in much more immediate peril.
Charles Braithwait was always on time. That's why his wife, Sandra, was worried when he was several minutes late to pick her up for an after-work dinner date.
After waiting several minutes, she called his cell phone.
"He'd been trying to get his phone out of his pocket. He said 'Sandra, come quickly — I'm sick."
It was a typical Wednesday evening at work on Dec. 2, 2009, for mechanic Harold Denman. He was working on a truck when he started feeling a little queasy.
"There had been a bug going around, so I just thought I was getting a cold, didn't think much of it," said 56-year-old Denman.
But his supervisor saw something Denman didn't see.
The National Transportation Safety Board has released an advisory regarding Meteorological Evaluation Towers (METs). These towers are installed to gather wind data from areas that may be used for wind development projects. The towers are generally less than 200 feet tall and are typically not lit or marked well.
These factors can make them difficult to see from the air and can pose a danger to helicopters during the landing and takeoff portions of flights. The towers are often temporary and are erected overnight, making them hard to track.
LifeFlight Eagle is broadening its safety efforts by launching the LifeFlight Eagle Safety Network, an effort to extend our safety practices to the EMS agencies and hospitals we work with every day.
LifeFlight Eagle Safety Coordinator, Joe Coons, said the Safety Network program is striving to ensure the EMS agencies and hospitals we work with are all on the same page when it comes to aviation and patient safety.
