{"id":1315875,"date":"2019-10-20T18:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T00:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=989465"},"modified":"2019-10-20T18:00:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T00:00:40","slug":"classic-air-medicals-glenwood-based-flight-crew-carries-out-critical-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/classic-air-medicals-glenwood-based-flight-crew-carries-out-critical-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Classic Air Medical\u2019s Glenwood-based flight crew carries out critical work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Classic Air Medical flight nurse Kerry Evens and flight paramedic Kraig Schlueter on the landing pad at Valley View Hospital. <\/strong>
Matthew Bennett<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Speed. Access. Locate.<\/p>\n

For Classic Air Medical flight paramedic Reed Clawson, those three words depict the primary function of an emergency helicopter like the Bell 407 at Valley View Hospital and relies on the facilities of Glenwood Springs Airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne is speed. You have to get the patient from Point A to Point B faster than you can drive them,\u201d Clawson said of the first of three key uses of emergency helicopters. \u201cTwo would be accessing the patient. Maybe they are in some sort of tricky terrain that you can\u2019t get to by vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThird would be locating them,\u201d Clawson said.<\/p>\n

At night the Classic Air Medical crew\u2019s night vision goggles become invaluable as they provide the ability to see even a small cellphone light from the air.<\/p>\n

In April 2016, Classic Air Medical began conducting missions from Valley View Hospital and the Glenwood Springs Airport. Whether carrying out search and rescue operations or transporting patients from one hospital to another, since 2016, Classic Air Medical\u2019s Glenwood-based flight crew has performed several hundred missions.<\/p>\n

The Bell 407\u2019s interior includes a gurney, cardiac monitor, ventilator, medication infusion pumps and other critical equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fly a paramedic and a nurse so that we can do the same as an ambulance plus the same as what the hospital could offer in an emergency room just to continue that care all the way to wherever they are going,\u201d Clawson said.<\/p>\n

While numerous patients have relied on Classic Air Medical\u2019s services over the years, the emergency helicopter itself has depended on Valley View Hospital and the Glenwood Springs Airport, but for different reasons.<\/p>\n

Clawson said Classic Air Medical utilizes Valley View Hospital\u2019s helipad as a take off, landing and parking area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe airport [provides] everything that [a helipad] doesn\u2019t have,\u201d Clawson said. The Glenwood Springs Airport provides hangar space for the helicopter to reside in during bad weather as well as a designated place to perform maintenance and to refuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an area where we can park for fueling operations because if there wasn\u2019t a place here to do it, we would have to fly to Rifle, Eagle or Aspen every time we needed fuel,\u201d Clawson said.<\/p>\n

According to Clawson, the Bell 407 needs refueling after every flight.<\/p>\n

While Classic Air Medical has been in Glenwood now for over three years, aviation in Glenwood Springs dates back to the early 20th century.<\/p>\n

Additionally, last year the city began its Airport Property Scenario Planning Project, \u201cas a land use comparison, community benefit and economic analysis,\u201d according to the city\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Recently, the project\u2019s lead consultant Gruen Gruen + Associates presented three potential scenarios for the 64 acres of land in south Glenwood Springs that included expanded aviation, a mixed-use village and a residential village.<\/p>\n

According to Gruen Gruen + Associates final report the expanded aviation scenario \u201cprovides a permanent base for medical transport and emergency\/fire response helicopters, including a helipad and hangar to accommodate maintenance and temporary storage needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mixed-use village scenario also incorporated, \u201cmultiple helipads and a large aircraft hangar to accommodate maintenance,\u201d the report outlined.<\/p>\n

However, the residential village scenario provided two different plans with one discernible difference being the removal of \u201caviation uses from the land use mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classic Air Medical flight nurse Kerry Evens and flight paramedic Kraig Schlueter on the landing pad at Valley View Hospital. Matthew Bennett Speed. Access. Locate. For Classic Air Medical flight paramedic Reed Clawson, those three words depict the primary function of an emergency helicopter like the Bell 407 at Valley View Hospital and relies on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 17:23:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}