Fifty years of firsts: The Airbus H160 to join Life Flight

Memorial Hermann Life Flight is legendary in the world of helicopter emergency medical services. It was the first air medical programme in Texas and the second in the US. The programme, founded by Dr James Henry "Red" Duke, was pioneering when launched in 1976. Fifty years on, it continues to break ground, and will introduce the first H160 with an air medical cabin, completed by Metro Aviation.

According to Life Flight’s Programme Director Rudy Cabrera, the founding principles remain: innovation and putting in the "extra miles" for patient care. With 34 years of nursing experience, Cabrera’s dedication is clear, as is his admiration for the man who initiated what is now a massive operation.

"Dr 'Red' Duke was the innovator for this,” explains Cabrera. “He was the sole person who came to Memorial Hermann to institute a flight programme. With this H160, we’re still fulfilling his mission, his dreams in reaching patients even further out and returning them to definitive care. We’ve changed our air medical helicopters, but the mission remains: bringing the Memorial Hermann Critical Care ICU to the patients."

The missing link

The decision to use the H160 is strategic. While the current H145 fleet handles core urban missions, Life Flight believes the larger H160 can extend the reach of Memorial Hermann to patients further away - without necessarily relying on fixed-wing aircraft - offering direct routes with fewer transfers. Moving patients from bedside to bedside.

Damon Sanger, Director of Aviation, explains: "The H160 will give us more options: further distance, increased speed. We can reach out to patient populations that would not be within range of our current fleet. The safety of the avionics, the Helionix cockpit, and the autopilots are the specific reasons we went with the H160; it allows us to do this job more efficiently for our patients."

Engineering the flying ICU

Metro Aviation in Shreveport, Louisiana had the responsibility of optimising the H160’s larger cabin . For Milton Geltz, Managing Director at Metro, the key was creating an ergonomically perfect environment.

"At Metro Aviation, we spend a large amount of time pouring over designs to ensure any configuration exceeds expectations and eases the burden of air medical professionals faced with a stressful job,” explains Geltz. “This cabin was laid out to ensure medical crews have the room and flexibility they need to work efficiently with the right equipment at their fingertips."

Amy McMullen, Metro’s Director of Aircraft Configuration, points to one major advantage, especially for neonatal transports. "For neonates, the cabin size is going to be a plus, because they’re going to be able to sit on both sides and take care of the baby," she says. "In a smaller aircraft, they don’t always have that flexibility or reach.”

Supporting the crew

Ultimately, the H160’s advanced avionics simply support a trained crew to focus on the mission. "When it comes to air medical, we use a lot of autonomy," says Cabrera. "You are responsible for the care of that patient from the beginning. It is on you to make those life-saving decisions in an environment where you no longer have resources to go to the hospital."

Despite demanding conditions, the teams continue to succeed. "They make it look so easy, but it’s not," Sanger concludes. "The demands on them are real. You can have the best training programme, but at 2:00 in the morning, it’s the professionalism of our pilots and medical crews that makes this programme run. We cannot be successful without them being successful."