Chris Beattie/Staff Photo
Flight nurse Keith Ashley, right, double checks the helicopter's supplies with flight medic, Andrew Peters, on Thursday afternoon at the PHI Air Medical base at Collin County Regional Airport in McKinney.
Drinking fluids and wearing sunscreen are the best ways to beat the heat, but when the heat beats you enough for a medical emergency, the fastest path to recovery is on a helicopter.
And as heat-related emergencies increase along with the number of 100-degree days, McKinney has a life-saving service in its own backyard -- PHI Air Medical at Collin County Regional Airport (CCRA).
The global full-service air ambulance provider operates one of its 70 national bases at CCRA, with pilots and flight paramedics on call every hour of the day. The PHI Air Medical crew answers emergency calls and transports patients in critical condition to area hospitals.
Chris Beattie/Staff Photo - Flight nurse Keith Ashley, right, double checks the helicopter's supplies with flight medic, Andrew Peters, on Thursday afternoon at the PHI Air Medical base at Collin County Regional Airport in McKinney.
"When they call us, we always have the same goals," said Keith Ashley, flight nurse with PHI Air Medical in McKinney. "To cause no pain, no harm and a positive, healthy outcome."
While it takes ground ambulances close to 45 minutes to get a patient from the North Collin County area to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where many must receive treatment, the PHI Air helicopter make the same trip in less than half the time. A flight medic and flight nurse accompany the pilot on the flight and provide crucial care before even arriving at a hospital.
"The only difference between us and a regular ambulance is the speed," said Andrew Peters, flight medic with PHI Air Medical. "We provide excellent care, fast."
Any time there is continuous, extreme heat, the number of heat-related injuries tends to multiply. Patient confidentiality criteria disallows medical helicopter services from disclosing the numbers and nature of their calls, but Ashley and Peters both said that the heat generally precludes more emergencies every summer.
"It's an obvious thing that the heat-related emergencies have increased due to these 112-degree days," Peters said.
Ashley emphasized, though, that many injuries may be spurned on by heat but were not necessarily caused by the high temperatures. The degree of injuries often depends on the patients' age, medical history and even what medications they take.
"A heat-related injury for one person might be heat exhaustion," Ashley said, "but for another, it could be a heat stroke. Different people's bodies function differently from others, so some aren't always as critical. But, heat-related injuries have definitely gone up."
The PHI Air Medical crew works with area fire and police departments and first responders, yet cover a radius of about 150 miles. They provide emergency, scene-to-hospital flights for about 30 miles of that radius and transports from hospital to hospital for the remaining area. The McKinney staff has picked up patients from hospitals as far as Galveston and Shreveport.
But PHI Air Medical's service -- particularly during hot summers -- goes beyond emergency response. The crew facilitates outreach campaigns throughout the year, giving health tips at school health fairs and public safety buildings.
About a month before the 100-degree temperatures hit this year, PHI Air Medical handed out water bottle-sunscreen packages that listed ways to stay safe during the heat, all underneath a helicopter insignia.
"Instead of being reactive, we're proactive," Ashley said. "We are all about doing what we can to help prevent what could occur, so when the summer comes, we're already talking to people about how to handle the heat."
The crew keeps its aircraft heat-ready, too. All medications and supplies needed on a call remain in the helicopter at CCRA at all times, thus, the aircraft must stay cooled. When the helicopter is on the ground, air conditioning units that are hooked up to it constantly funnel in cool air.
The helicopter is also equipped with built-in air conditioning that powers on once the rotors start for a flight.
"When it sits on the ground, the point is to keep it cool for medications and everything we have on it," Peters said. "If we get a call, we pull the air conditioners off, get in and go."
Ashley, who's been with PHI Air Medical since it came to McKinney in 2004, said that making a difference every day is the job's biggest reward. Peters, on the crew for six years, referred to the company's new t-shirts as the reason for their service.
"Our shirts say, 'The best part,' on the front and the back says, 'of your worst day,'" he said. "Every patient we pick up, it's probably the worst time in their life, and they're calling you for help. You're their last ditch, the one to take care of them and get them some help."
So, while area residents may not know when the 100-degree days will end this year, they can be sure that along with their public safety responders is a nearby air ambulance -- sometimes the only way to beat the heat.
"There's one thing about the service that we get a lot of attention to," said Ken Wiegand, executive director of CCRA. "When they take off, they're a point A to point B service; they get there as quickly as possible. They're low and fast, so when people hear a helicopter pass over their house and it's loud, they can rest assured that these people are out saving lives."
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