Kansas City,
01
July
2016
|
08:56 AM
America/Chicago

Critical Care Transport can be lifeline for those far away from KC

Children's Mercy Transport

It’s a moment that parents dread – their child needs critical medical care that may be many miles away.

Children’s Mercy’s new jet is a way to help trim travel time so sick children can get that care when seconds count.

At a Wichita hospital, an infant recently needed to see a pediatric liver specialist and the closest one was in Kansas City. Instead of a 3 ½ hour ambulance ride, the Children’s Mercy jet can get the patient there in 30 minutes.The Lear 31 business jet has been turned into a flying pediatric ambulance.

“The biggest thing for us was not having patients wait for us,” said Angela Cunningham of Transport Outreach.

She said the hospital’s King Air 300 was already busy enough.

“So if we didn’t have a second or third aircraft and they needed to come, we’d have to prioritize based on how sick the patient was,” said Cunningham.

The new jet is stocked with equipment and supplies, including ventilators, safety restraints and medication.

See the full story and video via KMBC.

Learn more about the Children's Mercy Critical Care Transport team.