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Updated: June 20, 2023

LifeFlight launches critical care ground transport program

Courtesy / LifeFlight of Maine A LifeFlight crew prepares to board one of the air transport service's new helicopters.
By Alexis Wells

LifeFlight of Maine is looking to acquire three specialized ground ambulances and launch a critical care ground transport program. 

The new program is raising funds to buy and outfit three, $640,000 ground vehicles, one for each LifeFlight base in Bangor, Lewiston and Sanford. According to LifeFlight, the new vehicles will relieve stress on local ambulance services and allow LifeFlight more independence to complete its typically longer-distance missions.
 
The goal is to secure the resources needed to take delivery of these ground ambulances in June 2024. The total investment of $1.9 million must be funded privately through the people of Maine through the work of The LifeFlight Foundation. More than $500,000 has already been raised for this new program.

“This is a necessary investment by LifeFlight in EMS infrastructure here in Maine,” said LifeFlight of Maine CEO Bill Cyr. “Our EMS partners have worked tirelessly with us for years, but their services are increasingly needed in their own communities, and a LifeFlight transport can take one of their vehicles away for an entire day. We are bringing three highly specialized ambulances to Maine, which gives all of our communities greater access to the highest quality care."

Each LifeFlight vehicle, both land and air, acts as a functioning mobile intensive care unit and is equipped with a pharmacy, blood and equipment, including a portable laboratory, ventilator, ultrasound and other medical tools not readily available at many rural hospitals, according to the organization’s website. 

“LifeFlight cares for patients ranging from premature newborns to those on cardio-pulmonary bypass,” said Executive Director Tom Judge. “Each of our air and ground specialized ambulances is a mobile ICU. These new critical care ground ambulances will be essential when physicians need to transfer a patient to a major medical center in Maine or beyond, and when for weather or logistical issues we cannot safely transfer the patient in our helicopters or airplane. Generous support from so many people across Maine will help us ensure we are there when needed, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

LifeFlight of Maine is a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that every person, in every community in Maine, has access to critical care and medical transport when needed. Since 1998, LifeFlight has transported more than 36,000 patients, one life at a time, from every community in the state.
 

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