By Cynthia Grau
PONTIAC – The OSF Life Flight air ambulance service is adding a helicopter to better serve the company’s hospital in Pontiac.
Karen Arndt, outreach coordinator for Life Flight, said the program began in January of 1967 in Peoria and has since expanded to Bloomington, Pontiac, Rockford and Peru. They are looking to staff a fourth helicopter for quicker emergency response, particularly for OSF St. James Medical Center in Pontiac.
“On the days that we have enough staff to upstaff, we’re going to be putting it on the helipad in Bloomington for that week, then we’re going to be off a week because the pilots work a week on, a week off,” Arndt explained to the Pontiac Kiwanis Club. “Then that following week we’ll be stationed here at the helipad at St. James. We’ll be out here weather permitting usually from 9 a.m. to about 8 p.m. so that we can get back for shift change.”
For more information, visit osflifeflight.org.
Cynthia Grau can be reached at news@wjez.com.
