Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2005)
HEALTH HINTS FROM THE F L I G H T C R EW The Air Life team handles emergencies every day, but our crew also has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to safety, minor injuries and ailments. In this issue, our helicopter pilot, Ken Cox, shares his knowledge on Dhver Fatigue. Ken Cox, Helicopter Pilot In 20 years as an EMS helicopter pilot I have attended over 1,000 motor vehicle accidents. In the early years, alcohol seemed to play a major role in about half of the accidents. However, in recent years falling asleep at the wheel has emerged as a significant cause. This shouldn’t surprise too many of us. One out of three of us admits to having fallen asleep at the wheel. However, please note that during a typical two and a half-second nap our vehicle travels nearly the length of a football field. That same nap causes 100,000 automobile accidents each year, kills 1,500 people, additionally injures another 71,000 people, and costs America 12.5 billion dollars. Falling asleep at the wheel doesn’t randomly happen to us. Some pattern in our lifestyle, recent history or health leads us to a situation where we tend to fall asleep at the wheel. Some of us burn the candle at both ends, with too much work and too much play. Many of us suffer from sleep apnea, a condition that interferes with our breathing during sleep hours. For some of us, alcohol impairs our ability to stay awake while driving and makes us six times as likely to fall asleep at the wheel. Other fatigue factors include driving during the normal hours of sleep, and driving alone on a long, straight road. We humans do some interesting things in our attempts to stay awake at the wheel. We sing to ourselves, slap and pinch ourselves, stomp our feet, play the radio loudly and open the windows. However, when it gets to that point, perhaps the time has come to listen to the experts. The experts tell us we should do the following: 1. plan our trip to include rest stops every two hours, and pick the rest stops in advance; 2. expect to get sleepy after lunch, and take a nap before driving again: 3. sleep at night and drive during the day; 4. share the driving: 5. drink caffeine: and, 6. when we start doing things to stay awake, we should stop the car in a safe place and take a 20-minute nap. I sometimes stop for a 20-minute nap. Twenty minutes added to my trip sees me home uneventfully and it buys me the rest of my life. To me, that seems like a good deal. Please welcome the newest additions to our Air Life family Denny Garcia Respiratory Therapist An architectural rendering of the Eurocopter E C -145 and the planned hangar needed to house the aircraft. Air Life seeks funds for new helicopter, hangar For nearly 20 years. Air Life has come to the aid of friends in need. Now it's Air Life’s turn to ask for help. substantial role in allowing Air Life to continue serving communities in the helicopter’s service area in the 150-mile radius around Bend. As the program's Bell 222UT has aged, “In 20 years of service, we’ve only gone parts have become more costly and to the public twice for support — once difficult to obtain, making it harder to in 1987 to implement the enforce the program's membership program, rigid safety standards. and once in 1995 to "We’ve spent the last build the new helicopter two years researching flight-ops center,” Vern the best aircraft to added. “We need the replace the Bell, and community’s help to all our research points allow us to continue to the Eurocopter EC- serving them with the 145,” explained program high standard of care director Vern Bartley. Air Life is known for." “New helicopters are Flight nurse Jim Mouser, maintenance costly, and we’ve known coordinator William Wilkinson, and Acknowledging all for some time that we’d respiratory therapist Michele Moore recently need to reach out to our visited a flight program in Nashville. Tenn donations is a priority of this campaign, and all friends for help funding to help develop the medical intehor for donors will be listed on a the new aircraft.” Air Life's new Eurocopter E C -145 wall plaque in the Air Life hangar. In As part of St. Charles addition, donors making gifts of $1.000 Medical Center’s “Expanding the and up will receive special recognition Vision" Capital Campaign, Air Life has plaques in our donor garden. All gifts embarked on a major fund raising effort are tax deductible to the full extent of to gather the $6.5 million needed to the law. purchase the helicopter and pay for the necessary training, equipment and Can you help? To make a contribution to remodeling for the existing hangar. our campaign, please call 1-800-353-0497 Charitable donations will play a or visit our Web site al www.airlife.org Philip Finch Respiratory Therapist A ir C u rren ts Stqf/ Editor Tawna Fenske tfenske@scmc.org (541) 617-2688 For more information about Air Life, contact: Customer Service airlife@scmc.org 1 -800-353-0497 Director Vern Bartley vbartley@scmc.org Membership Coordinator Wanda Grindstaff wgrindst@scmc.org or visit our Web site at www.airlife.org O f OBtCOW i zrcamts ( ammasKm < m N’crrétutm af Mediai Tnanpart Sesión A ccredited since 2001 Publication Title Air Currents Issue Date April 4. 2005 Statement of Frequency Three times per year Authorized Organization s Name and Address Air Life of Oregon 2500 NE NefT Rd Bend. OR 97701 (5 4 1) 385 6305 1 -800 353-0497
