SAN ANTONIO — University Health is expanding healthcare for women and children new transport helicopter specifically for children and Maternal Care.
Despite the name, Apollo MedFlight isn't planning a trip to the moon, but it wouldn't be too off the mark to call their new ride the mothership. SkyCare is University Hospital's new dedicated transport helicopter service for children, newborns, and women with high-risk pregnancies. Teams have been flying in the new helicopter since May in anticipation of the opening of the new Women and Children’s Hospital next month.
“We're really lucky here at University Hospital that we have this asset that we can share with the rest of Texas,” said Sarah Shaw, a nurse with University Hospital’s maternal transport team.
Shaw is a member of one of University Hospital's three transport teams; Maternity, Neonatal, and Pediatric, that will have exclusive use of the new helicopter. Hospital officials said it is effectively a flying ICU that will be able to aid hospitals around South Texas and along the border.
“We are able to bring level four NICU care from this facility to go pick up a baby to provide it. There and bring them back,” said respiratory therapist Craig Graves.
Graves said that for certain cases, like premature infants, the time it takes to begin treatment can be the difference between life and death.
“Due to their underdevelopment. They are extremely high risk for death. Doesn't take much,” he said. “When they do require care, it has to be immediate and expertise."
Time that SkyCare will give back to mothers and children who need it most. You're looking at almost 3 hours, one way by ambulance to get there. So, this is probably about a 45 minutes to an hour depending on winds. So, it's quite a bit of savings in time,” said Christopher Williams, University Health’s director of Pediatric Transport.