By Daniel Drainville
The Day
NORWICH, Conn. 鈥� While Norwich Free Academy students were lugging their backpacks across campus on their way to their next classes Wednesday morning, Life Star helicopter began circling overhead.
It appeared, blue and white, with its big white star emblazoned across the side 鈥� distant but clear against the pale blue, cloud-speckled sky. The 鈥渢hwop-thwop-thwop鈥� sound of the helicopter blades grew louder as it neared the field where it would be landing. Just outside the fence to the school鈥檚 turf field, hundreds of students and staff were gathered to greet it.
Through emails, social media or word-of-mouth from friends, they鈥檇 learned the helicopter was going to be landing as part of a demonstration coordinated by the school with Hartford Healthcare. Junior Kyla Rivera said it didn鈥檛 take long for word to spread and excitement to grow over the spectacle.
Rivera and other students said they鈥檇 never seen a helicopter land before.
鈥淚 want to see how they actually save people,鈥� she said.
Senior Jack Pichette said his teacher had let his whole kinesiology class come out to witness it.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I鈥檝e seen this before, at any other school,鈥� he added.
Senior Chloe Green said she was 鈥渉ype鈥� to see it.
At 11:32 a.m., the landing skids of the helicopter touched down on the turf field. As the rotor spun to a halt, jumpsuit-clad paramedics Aaron Olk and Samantha Mercer, and pilot Jeff Arnold exited and walked toward the crowd. Later on, they provided 100 students a tour of the helicopter, and answered questions from interested students about their jobs.
鈥淲e do lots of promos, but I鈥檝e never seen (anything) with this amount of students showing up, and the fanfare that we received is wild,鈥� Mercer said. 鈥淭he energy was amazing.鈥�
Mercer, an NFA graduate, later explained to students the helicopter, out of Backus Hospital, is one of three operated by critical care helicopter service Life Star. The other two are at MidState Medical Center in Meriden and at the Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport in Westfield, Mass. The service covers the entire state of Connecticut, along with Rhode Island and western Massachusetts, and backs up other air programs throughout New England and New York.
鈥淭he majority of what we do is actually inter-facility. So we鈥檙e usually taking somebody from one hospital to another,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e too sick for whatever they have going on, we take them to a bigger hospital.鈥�
Pilot Jeff Arnold said landing on a football field is not out of the ordinary for Life Star. Pilots look for big open spaces to land because they are safer.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l see a lot of air ambulance helicopters landing on football fields, or big, open parking lots, or soccer fields. They鈥檙e convenient, because there鈥檚 no trees and it鈥檚 a wide open space with few hazards,鈥� Arnold said. 鈥�(But) you usually don鈥檛 have quite the fanfare.鈥�
Arnold let students climb into the cockpit, ask questions and take photos, while another Hartford Healthcare representative showed how the stretcher is loaded and unloaded from the back.
After graduating NFA, Mercer got her nursing degree from Three Rivers Community College, and then worked at American Ambulance, Backus and Hartford hospitals before taking to the skies.
鈥淎nd now I鈥檝e been here for five years,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 not an entry-level job to do this, but it鈥檚 really cool because there鈥檚 so many different pathways that you can take.鈥�
Under a new health care pathway at NFA, students can learn about careers in health care by actually going to work at Hartford Healthcare facilities.
College and Career Center Director Linda Farinha said recently an NFA teacher was up at one of those facilities, in Hartford, where they talked about Life Star being willing to land anywhere.
鈥淎nd so we said, why not here?鈥� Farinha said.
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