Inside a plain building where a helicopter is parked out back waits a team of four people, always at the ready.

They know an important call can come in over the radio at any moment. When they get it, they go into action, calmly yet quickly grabbing all their packed, prepared bags.

Then it's out to the helicopter where they take their seats, stash their bags, don helmets, strap in and fly to someone who needs to make a quick flight to a lifesaving trauma center.

“We're here 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. If they need us when they're at their worst, we will be there at our best,” said Alex Gill, a LifeFlight pilot.

Those taking a LifeFlight ride, the air medical service of the Allegheny Health Network, are in a life-threatening situation.

The $8 million, medically equipped aircraft that sits at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport in Penn Township isn't called out for a fender bender. Still, the helicopter is only one part of the team. It's the staff that makes all the difference.

The nurses, paramedics and pilots that work for LifeFlight are at the top of their profession, the best of the best — judging by the amount of education, training and certification they bring with them.

The teams are ready and will do everything within their considerable power and knowledge to get their patient to the hospital alive.

Committed crew

On any given 12-hour day or night shift, there will be at least a nurse with critical care or emergency room experience.

Greg Parker, Andy Greene and Brenda Wamsley are just a few of the nurses who work for LifeFlight. Besides their training, they all have one thing in common: They didn't just fall into the profession. They chose to be a flight nurse, and they each set their sights on that goal from the beginning.

“Ever since I went to nursing school, that was my goal, to become a flight nurse,” said Wamsley, who commutes from Ohio to work her shift at Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport.

“I knew as soon as I started nursing school this is where I wanted to work,” Parker said.

A graduate of Karns City High School and the Butler County Community College nursing program, he is working toward his bachelor of nursing degree.

“I worked the majority of my career to get here, and I can truly say that I love my job. I don't wake up every day and dread going to work ... and because of that, I feel that I'm performing my best here,” Parker said. “I can guarantee anybody that if I go out to their family or them on a call, I'm always going to be working my hardest.”

Stabilization focus

The flight team is well-rounded, and the members complement each other.

Paramedics Bruno Pino and Donny Copper, both loaded with required certifications, are trained in pre-hospital medicine, which is focused on stabilizing patients and getting those patients to where they need to be next, Pino said.

Nurses, on the other hand, are trained in emergency, and intensive-care skills, and they know about the inner-hospital stuff. According to Parker, they learn more about disease processes and some drugs.

“But then when we get here, we learn from each other,” Pino said. “Whenever we get to the helicopter, we're the same; we act as a team. The difference is how we got here.”

What do the members of the team look for when they arrive on a trauma scene? They actually call it scene work. “You have to be able to see the big picture; you can't be laser-focused,” Greene said. “When you're doing something medical-wise, you have to be aware of your surroundings, too. Because we're operating around an aircraft, we're working on the roadside, anything can happen at any time.”

Most of the team's work, however, is inter-facility, meaning 80% of their flights are from Butler Memorial Hospital to Allegheny General Hospital, for example.

Pilot responsibilities

While the medical team is working with a patient, the pilot has his own set of responsibilities. His first and foremost concern is safety. Gill is always aware of the weather. He monitors it constantly. He's not the only one who determines if they leave the ground, however.

“If anybody doesn't like the flight for any reason, anyone can turn it down,” Gill said. “If we start flying (and) the crew is like, 'What are we doing in this weather?' Everyone has to be on board for us to go.”

Gill, who lives in Saxonburg, tries to be aware of the noise a helicopter makes and is careful about where he flies. He also has the usual concerns — wires, traffic and cars, people, slopes.

Sometimes he cannot get the helicopter near an accident scene. In that case, LifeFlight has worked with local fire departments, who have prepared landing zones around the county, such as parking lots. An ambulance crew can then bring the patient to the LifeFlight team. Also, if an accident happens within a four-minute drive to the airport, an ambulance will bring the patient right to the LifeFlight station.

Gill will be the first to tell you he knows little to nothing about medical care. His job is to fly his helicopter safely and in the most efficient manner possible. He is acutely aware of his lifesaving mission and his precious cargo, yet he knows the best way to serve them is to do his job correctly.

“The only goal for me is to get from Point A to Point B as fast and safely as I possibly can,” Gill said.

“When they're dispatched, Gill's got to take as objective a look at the situation as possible. All he needs to know is, 'Can you fly from A to B safely?' Not that there's a 5-year-old under a tractor-trailer, because that can affect his judgement. Not until he's accepted, everything's clear, he's up in the air, then they start divulging the information,” said Nico Soler, the prehospital business development specialist for LifeFlight.

“Whenever we get the calls, heading and distance (is all they tell me),” Gill said. “So I know this is where I'm going, Butler hospital (for example), and I'm taking the patient to Pittsburgh. They don't even tell me what hospital in Pittsburgh because if it's Allegheny General, OK, I generally know that we take out 18-year-olds and up there. If it's a West Penn Neonate, I know that it's a baby. If it's going to Children's, now I know it's a kid. They don't want to cloud (my) judgment whatsoever.”

“In the end, we want to help everybody that we can, but in order to do that, we have to make safety number one,” Copper said. “It has to be our priority always.”

The paramedics, the nurses, even the pilot all are affected by what they see, and sometimes what they see is terrible.

“You do what you can. You rationalize it as best you can, but at the end of the day it changes you, and you bring it home with you,” Pino said. “You turn out the light switches. You make sure the oven's off. You take some extra precautions, because you've seen things, how when you forget those things what happens.”

There can be good changes as well.

“It changes you for the better, too, because it makes you understand tomorrow might not be there. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, so enjoy it while you can,” Pino said. “Enjoy your family and enjoy every interaction you have. Cherish it, really cherish those interactions.”

Butler County Business Matters is a monthly publication focusing on business, industry and manufacturing. The August issue will feature milestones and legacies.