By Elane Dickenson

Wallowa County Chieftain

LA GRANDE Air Life, a new air ambulance service for Eastern Oregon, set up shop in La Grande at the Union County Airport this month to provide helicopter medical transport operations in the region, including Wallowa County, with a Eurocopter AS350-B3 aircraft. Air Life also opened operations in Ontario.

The Air Life ambulance service will supplement Life Flight, which is also based at La Grande and Ontario and already serves Wallowa County.

The Air Life program started its 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-a-week service Wednesday, Oct. 9. It is staffed with four pilots, eight medical crew members (flight nurses and paramedics) and one mechanic.

Air Life is backed by Air Methods, which operates all over the United States and is considered a global leader in air medical transportation.

The helicopter based in La Grande is equipped with a variety of critical care supplies and equipment, similar to those found in a hospital emergency room or intensive care unit. These include items such as oxygen, airway resuscitation equipment, heart monitor/defibrillator, suction, IV pump and fluids, specialized monitor/testing equipment, ventilators, and emergency medications.

In Oregon, Air Life offers air medical memberships through the Omni Advantage program. Subscribers will be able to be transported by Air Life or any other Air Methods air ambulance across the country, with no additional charge. For Omni Advantage membership information, visit its website, OmniAdvantageMember.com or call 1-855-877-2518.

In addition, Air Life reports that it has a reciprocity agreement with Life Flight Networks membership program and will honor the terms of the program should a Life Flight member be transported by Air Life.

Well continue to call Life Flight first, and Air Life will be a backup, said Dave Harman, CEO of Wallowa Memorial Hospital. He estimated that air ambulance calls in Wallowa County average no more than once a week, but there have been as many as six in one day.

We are very excited to be part of the community and to bring this additional air medical resource to the citizens of Union County and the surrounding areas, said Chris Burns, regional vice president of Air Methods. While Union County has a very robust health care delivery system, the closest trauma center is Boise or Portland, both of which are a few hours by ground. This additional air medical resource increases access to a trauma center should citizens ever find themselves in need of that level of care.