FLIGHT NURSE NABS LOFTY STATE HONOR

Inside the Air Evac office at Saint Francis Medical Center, air ambulance personnel study a flight map of the area. Standing from the left are Jim Damron, base manager and pilot; Sandy Lyles, flight nurse; and Ben Hancock, pilot; seated is Jeff Romines, flight medic. (Jackson U.S.A./Jim Obert)

When Sandy Grebing Lyles was growing up in Jackson she knew she wanted to be a registered nurse, but she didn't know her aspiration would take her airborne -- it has.

Lyles is a flight nurse for Air Evac Lifeteam at Saint Francis Medical Center, and she has been named Flight Nurse of the Year by the Missouri Chapter of the National Flight Nurses Association.

She recently accepted the award -- a gold lapel pin shaped as a pair of wings -- at the annual meeting of the association at Lake of the Ozarks.

Lyles is one of about 100 flight nurses in Missouri stationed with air ambulance services at 12 locations in the state. She was nominated by her peers and selected on the basis of her service and qualifications.

The 1985 graduate of Jackson High School attended Southeast Missouri State University and graduated in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in nursing.

Prior to joining Air Evac in February 1991 as a secondary crew member, she worked in the intensive care unit at Saint Francis and received accreditations in advanced cardiac life support and trauma nurse specialist.

She became one of three full-time flight nurses in August 1991 -- and that equated into a lot of on-the-job training.

"It's a job that really gets your adrenalin up," said Lyles, who left Jackson and moved to Lake of the Ozarks when she married in April. "Once the call comes in and the adrenalin starts to flow, it takes a while to calm down after coming back from a flight."

Air Evac operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Lyles works 10 24-hour shifts a month with the air ambulance service, as do two other flight nurses. Lyles also spends time working in the hospital's emergency room and will soon begin helping in the intensive care unit.

While on call, the flight crews stay in an office area in the basement of the hospital. There is a living room area with a TV and VCR, a kitchen area with a microwave, showers and three bedrooms. "All the comforts of home," says Lyles.

The air ambulance -- a Bell 206L1 Long-Ranger helicopter -- is called into action almost every day. Some days the flight crew will answer emergency calls two or three times.

"The busiest time of the year is during the summer," said Lyles, whose mother and father, Hilda and Bob Grebing, live in Jackson. "People are traveling and vacationing more and there are more accidents then. During one 24-hour shift I was on eight flights."

The air ambulance brings patients to Saint Francis and Southeast hospitals in Cape Girardeau and also transfers patients from rural medical centers to hospitals in St. Louis, Poplar Bluff, Memphis and Evansville, Ind.

Most patients are traumatized due to motor vehicle accidents or have cardiac problems; some suffer gunshot wounds.

When the air ambulance is requested the response is quick: "It's a long jog from our office to the hanger but from a dead sleep to lift off takes five to seven minutes," said Lyles, adding that a flight crew consists of three people -- a pilot and two medical personnel, one of whom is a registered nurse.

Medical equipment in the helicopter includes a matrix, which is a heart monitoring machine, and a defibrillator, which is used to shock a heart into beating.

There is also an escort monitor that shows the heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation. Pain-killing drugs can be administered.

"Sometimes in car wrecks people are injured by the steering wheel that causes a lung to collapse. We can alleviate pressure by putting a needle in the chest to release the air in the cavity, and that helps the lung re-expand," Lyles said.

Another medical procedure she performs while airborne is a surgical airway incision. If a breathing tube cannot be inserted down a throat due to extreme trauma, an incision is made in the trachea to assist breathing.

When the helicopter is 15 to 20 minutes from the hospital, Lyles radios a report on the patient's condition and treatment rendered.

If bad weather hampers a mission, the helicopter will return to base. If a patient is already on board and is being transferred to another hospital, the craft will set down and an ambulance summoned to complete the transfer.

Lyles says her job with the air ambulance service is very satisfying, and there's even a seasonal benefit -- "The Christmas lights are on houses and in city parks. They're really beautiful from up there."