Wanda English Burnett - Editor

Ripley County Communications received a call last Thursday that a helicopter had crashed somewhere in the vicinity of US 421 and 100, near the State Park property. The 911 dispatchers were in on the secret that the crash was a “mock disaster” but they immediately called out all the appropriate emergency service personnel, who responded appropriately.

When Gabriel Muething, safety chairman for PHI Dove Flight services, contacted Scott Huffman, Ripley County EMS director, about the crash scenario, Huffman was excited and saw it as a perfect opportunity for Ripley County emergency personnel to hone their skills as well. The drill involved people responding from Rescue 69, Versailles Volunteer Fire Department First Responders, 911 dispatchers, and emergency management agency.

The event, staged by PHI Helicopter Service out of Indianapolis began initially as a practice for their dispatchers. The helicopter was to be dispatched from St. Vincent’s Jennings County Hospital - their new base as of July 1 - and fly to University Hospital in Cincinnati. However, the pilot and crew were in on the secret that they would “crash” somewhere in between, being in Ripley County. With the new base in Jennings County, PHI can now respond to most places in Ripley County in about 12-15 minutes. They travel at 130 mph and have a paramedic and flight nurse on board.

Muething noted the mock crash would allow dispatchers out of their Indianapolis office the opportunity to practice tracking the helicopter. The aircraft is equipped with an outer link GPS system that allows the dispatchers to track them on a monitor from the beginning of their flight until they have landed safely. When the aircraft was lost from their screen and there was negative contact, the dispatchers in Indianapolis did their job and contacted Ripley County 911 Communications Center.

“Our dispatchers took over from there,” noted Huffman. They called for appropriate response based on the information they received from the PHI dispatch system and soon a group of emergency personnel responded.

The helicopter had landed at the Russell Peace property that borders the Versailles State Park in a remote area between two ponds.

Local emergency personnel responded immediately to find the helicopter nestled between two ponds with 16 more located on the 55-acre tract of land. It was difficult maneuvering some of the vehicles and they had to stop short and walk in to where the helicopter was actually “down.” It was dark, making the scenario more difficult for responders. They quickly located two bodies - manikins provided by EMS, and then found out there was a 10-year-old somewhere in the dark. Versailles firemen could find the victim using their thermal imaging camera and found it was a “real” person, nine-year-old Christopher Stephens of Osgood, who was playing along with emergency personnel. Stephens was quickly assessed and put onto a backboard and carried out.

Muething was pleased with the outcome of the exercise and noted the “dispatchers are the life line to the real world (for emergency personnel) - they are truly the glue that holds things together.” Huffman agreed and noted dispatchers literally “set the tone for the run.”

The exercise that had a two-hour delay due to a “real” head-on crash on US 31 in Columbus that PHI had to respond to, was hailed a success by organizers of the event. There were things that could be made better and both Muething and Huffman were putting their heads together to tweak anything that would make the process smoother.

After all, according to Muething, “the goal of the system is to get the patient to the right care they need.” Sometimes this means a patient will be flown directly to a trauma center, and other times they need to go to an area hospital. Whatever the case, EMS personnel work closely with everyone involved to assure the residents of Ripley County and those passing through they will have the best emergency service they can provide.

WANDA ENGLISH BURNETT PHOTO Emergency personnel including paramedics, EMT's, and first responders, responded to a mock helicopter crash last Thursday night at the Russell Peace property near Versailles. The event was put together by PHI Dove Flight services who are now stationed in North Vernon, closer to respond to the needs of Ripley County.