Hershey, Pa. -- As part of an effort to continually improve its ability to respond to medical emergencies and save lives, Penn State Life Lion has located one of its air medical service helicopters, along with a flight team, at Carlisle Airport. Starting today (June 3), the Carlisle satellite base will begin as a 12-hour operation, with plans to become a 24-hour operation next month.

Initially, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, which operates the Life Lion program, will station one of its two medical service helicopters in Carlisle from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Carlisle base plans to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week beginning in July.

For the past 18 months, Life Lion had operated a 12-hour-per-day satellite base at the Gettysburg airport. With operations commencing in Carlisle, Life Lion helicopter no longer will station a helicopter in Gettysburg.

Since February 2002, the medical center and Life Lion have been examining satellite base options in south-central Pennsylvania in an effort to improve air medical service to and from accident scenes and hospitals in that region. Following a pilot program at selected locations over the first six months of 2002, Life Lion committed to using Gettysburg Airport as a satellite base on a half-time basis. The switch to Carlisle will allow Life Lion to establish a full-time presence at a second location and still ensure enhanced response times for the western part of Life Lion's coverage area.

"We have discovered that moving our operations to this location first and foremost affords the community at large a much better coverage area," said Matt Stapleton, chief flight nurse for Life Lion. "We are also able to take full advantage of the Carlisle airport's amenities, including the immediate availability of hangar space, crew quarters, flight approach to the airport in inclement weather and access to the Jet-A fuel Life Lion needs in order to fly."

The move to Carlisle will allow Life Lion to serve its coverage area better both for scene work, such as traffic accidents and other traumas, as well as for inter-hospital transports.

"We are making an increased commitment to our service area and our first-responder partners by moving to 24 hours at the Carlisle base," said Stapleton. "EMS and other emergency personnel in central Pennsylvania will now have access to two aircraft throughout their shifts."

Being stationed in Carlisle means Life Lion will maintain shorter response times for communities in the western part of its coverage area than if the helicopter would be sent from Hershey. Adult and pediatric trauma surgeons, emergency physicians, nurses, paramedics and other critical-care professionals can use the added time to provide potentially life-saving care in the event of traumas or when advanced patient care is required.

"With the increasing role of air ambulances, our satellite base in Carlisle is important because it better positions Life Lion to provide timely transport of patients in crisis from community providers to advanced-care centers that can provide necessary, life-saving medical interventions," said John Damiano, assistant professor of emergency medicine and medical director of Life Lion. "It means improved odds for the sickest or most severely injured patients."

Penn State Life Lion combines highly specialized flight teams and medically equipped twin-engine helicopters to provide intensive care capability for the entire central Pennsylvania region 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Life Lion is able to transport up to two seriously ill and injured patients to Penn State Hershey Medical Center's Level One Trauma Center. Life Lion also regularly transports patients to other appropriate regional trauma and burn centers and transports donor organs for transplantation.

Life Lion employs two American Eurocopter Dauphins, which are instrument flight certified and flown by a single pilot. Designed to carry two patients, a medical flight team and necessary medical equipment, Life Lion cruises up to 180 miles per hour and has a flight range of more than 400 miles. Life Lion currently is in the process of upgrading its helicopter fleet. A computerized communications center supports Life Lion and is staffed 24 hours a day by specially trained air medical communications and dispatch personnel.