HARTFORD, Wis. — When crash victims don’t have time to spare being transported on the ground, Flight For Life is ready to take them in the air.
The non-profit organization’s executive director says they’re seeing an unfortunate reality play out in real-time. Far more reckless driving crashes are requiring their crews to respond than in years’ past.
Leif Erickson has seen the aftermath of hundreds of crash scenes during his 17 years as a flight paramedic. Now, he leads the operation.
“It looks like a war zone,” he said. “The debris that are on the roadways and then the injuries to the patients. If you’re not in this industry or this service, you typically don’t see it.”
"Have you responded to scenes where patients have been victims of reckless driving crashes?” TMJ4 asked. “In my career, countless times,” Erickson replied. “Countless times we respond to reckless driving where patients either the innocent bystander or the person that was actually doing the reckless driving was injured.”
Erickson says crews have flown at least 270 patients to Level 1 trauma centers at hospitals like Froedtert each of the past three years.
It’s a stretch where Flight For Life says reckless, distracted and drugged driving was to blame in more crashes responses than crews can recall throughout their careers.
“The significance of what it does to the patient, that’s what the general public does not understand,” Erickson said.
“The vehicle is a weapon, it can kill people,” said Flight For Life Nurse Ann Mirsberger.
Mirsberger is responsible for keeping trauma patients alive in the back of the helicopter.
“It might be managing or establishing an airway, they have issues with breathing problems, loss of blood,” she said.
But she’s taking on an additional responsibility to prevent teens from making poor decisions that could result in the next flight.
“It’s people on Facebook, social media, Instagram, Snap Chatting, drinking and driving, speeding, being above the law,” she said.
Mirsberger is leading an effort to bring back Flight For Life’s distracted driving education program. Starting in the new year, crews will appear at schools across southeastern Wisconsin to provide presentations and simulate scene responses.
“There’s so many combinations of things that are causing these accidents so bringing it back and starting with kids that are young and reminding them that a vehicle is a weapon could save not only their life, but maybe their friends or their family," she said.
Mirsberger and her colleagues see firsthand the devastation dangerous and distracted driving cause. They hope sharing that knowledge with young drivers will make them consider the consequences before taking the wheel.
