Baptist LifeFlight, Florida’s first hospital-based helicopter ambulance celebrated its 30th anniversary throughout the month of May, 2007.

The third such service in the United States, Baptist LifeFlight is the airborne extension of Baptist Hospital’s state-designated trauma center. Its paramedics and nurse-paramedics are specially trained and certified to provide the advanced medical interventions necessary to stabilize and maintain critically ill or injured patients while they are en route to the emergency room.

On call 24 hours a day with three aircrafts in operation, Baptist LifeFlight can be in the air within minutes. LifeFlight utilizes high performance aircrafts that cruise at speeds in excess of 130 miles an hour and has a range of more than 200 statute miles. It is especially well suited to support the Baptist LifeFlight emergency medical transport service.

In 2006 alone, Baptist LifeFlight transported over 2000 patients from within a 100-mile radius of Pensacola. Approximately 65 percent of those calls are scene transports, that is, transports involving either severely injured or critically ill patients. The others will be inter-hospital transports. Often patients transported by Baptist LifeFlight have neither insurance nor the financial means to reimburse for their flights. Baptist Health Care absorbs this considerable expense, relying on donations to its Baptist Health Care Foundation for help.

To celebrate this milestone, Baptist LifeFlight visited a variety of sites throughout communities served. These site visits were open to public and provided citizens an opportunity to tour the helicopter and meet Baptist’s ‘everyday heroes.’

Since 1977 Baptist LifeFlight has saved the lives and well-being of thousands of people in the northwest Florida and south Alabama area.