News Release

AeroCare Air Ambulance transports critical one-month old infant with rare heart condition coast to coast

AeroCare Worldwide Air Ambulance recently performed an emergency, life-saving air ambulance mission for a critically-ill one-month old infant. The infant was born with multiple complex cardiac defects and required special surgery to correct the defects. The surgery is so specialized that there is only one surgeon in the U.S. who will attempt the complex surgery to recreate a vital missing artery. That surgeon, Dr. Frank Hanley, and his specialized team are located on the other side of the country at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital. The patient was in Washington, DC., requiring a cross-country transport that could only be handled by a fixed-wing air ambulance jet like AeroCare operates.

It took a highly-skilled medical crew to transport the infant on AeroCare's Learjet air ambulance. AeroCare specializes in neonatal air medical transports and they assembled a team of their most experienced neonatal transport specialists for this vital mission. The team consisted of neonatal, pediatric transport RN Maureen Trybula and respiratory therapist and neonatal pediatric specialist Jennifer Watts. They were accompanied by Dr. Michael Fitzgerald. "This patient was on eight life-saving intravenous drips, mechanical ventilation, hemodynamic monitoring and required an isolette to maintain her temperature throughout the transport," said Trybula.

The infant's volatile condition required close monitoring on the coast-to-coast flight. "Although she remained stable for us throughout the flight, she was the type of patient who could deteriorate at any second, so preparing for many different outcomes was imperative," said Trybula. Jennifer Watts, veteran NICU/PICU respiratory therapist had to continuously monitor the baby's ventilator needs, including multiple calculations to ensure medical oxygen and medical air were plentiful.

Due to the emergent nature of the transport, the Washington, DC. Police department gave the team a police escort from the hospital to the awaiting air ambulance at the airport. "With the use of our lights and sirens, as well as a few wonderful police officers, who stayed with us until we boarded our plane, we were able to make it to the airport safely and quickly," said Trybula.

AeroCare transports neonatal patients often, but this mission was particularly unique for the AeroCare team. Trybula said "This was an incredibly emotional experience for us all. This mother was fighting for her daughter's life and we were so honored to help in such a vital part of her journey. We shared a very emotional and tear-filled hug at the end of the night."