TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — When two Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies were shot in the line of duty on July 16, they were taken to Tampa General Hospital by helicopter.
Deputies Sopharmony Muon and Colton Daniels were shot when a suspect ambushed them during an attempted arrest on Shell Point Road in Ruskin. Deputy Muon was struck in the face. Deputy Daniels was struck in the neck. Both were airlifted to Tampa General Hospital, where their families were reunited with them. The suspect, Chris Dmuchoski, 34, was also transported to Tampa General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
WATCH: How Tampa General's Aeromed helicopter gets critical patients to the hospital faster than an ambulance
That flight was one of nearly 2,000 the Aeromed program completes each year.
Auri Miller, TGH Aeromed Program Director, said the program has been operating since April of 1989.
"Our Aeromed transport program is Tampa General Hospital's helicopter EMS program, and we additionally have a ground ambulance transport program as well associated with Aeromed, so we're responsible for responding to both critical trauma events, critical medical events that may either be generated from our pre-hospital partners through 911, or our inter-hospital partners such as other hospital systems needing to transport patients here to Tampa General," Miller said.
The speed advantage of air transport over ground is significant, Miller said.
"On the aircraft, we have no stoplights, no stop signs, and it's a straight shot," Miller said. "The way we really determine on what that time is going to be like is we take that distance from where we are picking up our patient to the hospital, and let's say that that distance is 20 miles. We know that we're going to get that patient there in 10 minutes. Whereas if you're coming by ground, that might be upwards of anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, and that can make a significant difference for our patients."
"Time is tissue. Time is brain. That's really what's making a significant impact on our patient outcomes," Miller said.
The helicopter functions as a mobile ICU. The aircraft carries two units of whole blood on every transport, regardless of whether crews have advance information indicating a patient will need it. The crew is also equipped for advanced airway management, chest tube interventions, medication infusions, and other critical procedures. This is all in a miniaturized format due to space constraints.
Miller said the decision to send the helicopter versus a ground ambulance comes down to how sick the patient is.
"Our air medical program have advanced procedure capabilities. They have advanced formulary capacity. So it's really just dependent on the acuity or how sick the patient is," Miller said.
Each flight is staffed by three people: a pilot focused solely on aviation, a flight nurse who is also a dual-credentialed flight paramedic, and a flight paramedic partner.
Miller said the minimum requirement to even apply for a flight nurse or flight paramedic position is five years of experience, specifically in ICU or emergency medicine.
"If we are so fortunate to get a position, then our orientation lasts anywhere from six months to eight months as we go through all of those specialized training," Miller said.
When the crew is in the aircraft with a patient, Miller said there is no time for hesitation.
"When we are in here, absolutely not. It is time to do our jobs. It is just automatic, and that's where that years of experience and that training is so crucial, so that it just really becomes automatic. We know what's wrong, we know how to address it," Miller said.
After every flight, the full crew conducts a debrief that includes the medical crew, the pilot, and communication specialists.
The program operates out of TGH and three other bases across Florida. Miller said Tampa General remains the academic medical center for the region, drawing the most critically ill patients from across the area, a demand that has grown alongside Tampa's population.
Miller said the program is also the second in the nation, and the first in Florida, to provide emergency medical care to canine officers.
"Our Aeromed program is critically important to making a difference to saving lives, and it's not just only the care that we are providing in the ambulance, but it really also is our collaboration and our partnerships with the other pre-hospital agencies, our other hospital partners as well, through training and education, we're only improving the care that all of us are providing to our patients," Miller said.
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