COUNTY LANDS METRO LIFEFLIGHT

WILL BASE AT LORAIN COUNTY AIRPORT

TMC NEWS has learned that the Lorain County Commissioners will announce shortly that a contract has been signed with Cleveland based Metro LifeFlight to house one of their Aircrafts at the Lorain County Regional Airport.

The talks between Lorain County and Metro LifeFlight have been going on for a long time but now a deal has been struck and the Aircraft is scheduled to make the County Airport home within the first part of April.

Launched in 1982, Cleveland Metro Life Flight is an internationally recognized critical care transport service based in Northeast Ohio. Accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) since 1994, Metro Life Flight provides both local and international assistance utilizing helicopter, Lear jet and ground unit assets.

Metro Life Flight has a unique capability in that each mission is served by a Flight Physician and Flight Nurse Specialist team, while preserving incomparable confidence and safety that only comes with a two pilot service.

In the top photo Metro LifeFlight is seen with two helicopters on the ground at a semi verses minivan in Carlisle Township on 301 and Parsons Road. PHOTO GALLERY

Chief James Rader of LaGrange Township Fire & Rescue said that having LifeFlight in our County will be a great asset to the community. “It’s wonderful, I was very happy to hear that the deal was done.”

Rader said that in June of 2008 the Firefighters Association, along with a donation from the Wellington Eagles, installed a concrete landing pad in the LaGrange Community Park for helicopter landings. Instead of helicopters landing on roadways or in people’s yards for scene flights, they would meet the ambulance at the park for the patient transfer. In 2008 Rader said that LifeFlight assisted his Department about 6 times.


The photo above shows Firefighters and LifeFlight crews loading a patient onto a helicopter that landed on the new pad in Community Park after a two car crash injured 9 people. PHOTO GALLERY

Chief Robert Walker of the Wellington Fire District said that having LifeFlight based in the County will be a great benefit to our area. “With our service area being so vast, our southern border is the Ashland County line, our western border is the Huron County line and our eastern border is the Medina County line, so we get into some pretty remote areas. Having the helicopter right here in the county will cut down on the response times and that will be a great benefit to the patients.”

Walker said that his Department over the years has called on three different medical helicopter services, including Metro, MedEvac and Toledo LifeFlight. “We respect each of them and are grateful for the service they have provided us over the years.”