The eagle landed on the lawn of Trinity Oaks on Tuesday. The Rowan Chamber Power in Partnership breakfast on April 16 welcomed Operational Supervisor and Flight Paramedic on the Novant Health AirLink helicopter Jeff Kuehn.
Novant Health added the helicopter to the emergency response fleet in Rowan County in 2024 to complement the three other helicopters under Novant in the region. This helicopter provides care to patients up to 100 nautical miles away and can transport patients to other hospitals in the region quickly.
“Strategically, it’s placed here in Rowan County because two of our largest tertiary centers are Winston-Salem Forsyth County and Mecklenburg County at Presbyterian Medical Center. So, our medical helicopters is able to serve both locations and be able to take care of our folks right here as well,” President of Novant Health Rowan Medical Center Gary Blabon said.
Kuehn started his talk by having everyone in the audience close their eyes and visualize a car accident where they woke up days later in a hospital with no idea what had happened. He then walked everyone through what had happened in the interim.
Starting with on scene emergency responders, they alert a need for an airlift which starts the process for the AirLink team. A pilot, a paramedic and a nurse take off from the Novant Health Rowan Medical Center to get to the scene.
After loading the patient and setting course for the hospital, whether in Rowan County or at a larger medical facility in Winston-Salem or Charlotte, the real work begins. A trip from the Rowan Medical Center to Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte only takes 17 minutes for the helicopter.
In those 17 minutes, they run blood tests, set up IVs and potential defibrillators, sometimes intubate, all while in a shaking helicopter the size of a car roughly 2,000 feet above the ground.
While performing these tests and preparations, they are also communicating with the destination hospital to give more information about what to expect for the patient. After landing and handing off the patient to the emergency department, they head back to their home base and wait for the next call.
With 24-hour and 12-hour shifts, someone on the helicopter team is always on call to respond to emergencies in typically inaccessible places as quickly as possible.
“AirLink 4 is activated by the hospital. They immediately respond,” Kuehn said. “Day or night. Doesn’t matter. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
The attendees of the breakfast were then invited to go see the AirLink land and outside of Trinity Oaks and then get a tour of the inside of the aircraft.
The next Power in Partnership breakfast is on May 21 to celebrate the graduation of the Leadership Rowan Class No. 33.
