Special Feature
The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Critical Care Transport Jet photos: Steve Wood
THE 500MPH AMBULANCE
The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Critical Care Transport Jet By Bob Shepard
Ashley Hagood doesn't remember her first airplane ride. The 23-year old North Alabama woman was unconscious, aboard the University of Alabama at Birmingham Critical Care Transport jet, as it made a mad dash from Panama City, Fla., to Birmingham, Ala., in an attempt to save her life.
It was supposed to be a week of sun, sand and surf for Ashley's extended fam- ily. Three generations of the Hagoods were vacationing on Florida's Gulf Coast. Ashley had even brought her new boyfriend, Mark. But on the second night of the trip, their idyllic vacation became a nightmare.
Ashley woke in extreme pain. Abdom- inal pain unlike anything she'd ever felt before. Maybe it was food poisoning, but she didn't think food poisoning hurt this bad. There was an incredible pressure on her chest, her stomach was heaving. The family hustled her to a local hospital where physicians made a surprising dis- covery: She had a large mass on her liver that had ruptured. And she was bleeding
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(a Cessna Citation Bravo jet), when the call came in.
The crew was in Panama City in 40 minutes, flying right at 500mph. "I hadn't seen anyone that pale," flight nurse Re- gena Bragwell, RN, remembers thinking as they loaded their patient. With partner Chana Jones, RN, she pumped fluids and pain medications into Ashley, and told the pilots, "Fly fast."
internally, still in great pain.
"I heard them say internal bleeding, mass,
liver...and I figured I wasn't going to make it," Ashley recalls. "I told every- body in my family good-bye." The local hospital knew that Ashley needed specialized care - and she needed it fast. The UAB Critical Care Transport team was already making preparations to fly to Panama City to collect a different patient, but Ashley took precedence. The team, two pilots and two flight nurses, was assembled at the Birmingham airport, prepping their flying intensive care unit
They did. The return flight, Ashley's first, took just 35 minutes with favorable winds and altitude. Ground transportation between hospitals and airports took longer than it did to make the 235-mile trip to Birmingham. Her parents and Mark made the long drive back in near-silence, won- dering if she'd still be alive when they got to UAB.
She was rushed to intensive care where the flight crew worked with UAB's Med- ical Emergency Team and the ICU staff to stabilize her, infusing blood and moni- toring her vital signs. Then liver surgeon Steve Bynon, M.D., removed a football- sized mass, a benign tumor called an ade-
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