15-04-2025
Air rescue team celebrates 30 years serving area
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) — What started 30 years ago as a program with one helicopter serving one hospital has grown to a team serving the entire region, having improved the outcomes of nearly 40,000 patients.
One of those patients was Elizabethton's Larry Parlier. He fell off his roof in December 2002.
'I was finishing putting up the Christmas lights when I fell,' Parlier said. He doesn't remember much after being loaded into what was then Wings Air Rescue. The service got him to the hospital in a 15-minute flight. It would have been a 45-minute drive by ambulance.
'The doctor came in and he told me that there was probably about a 15% chance that I would have even lived. If they hadn't got me, I would probably would have died.'
Wings was initially a service of Johnson City Medical Center and began in March of expanded service is now called Highlands Emergency Air Rescue & Transport (HEART) and contracts with Ballad Health. Ballad Health says HEART replaced the Wings and Wellmont branding that Ballad previously used.
Pilot Dwain Rowe has been there since the beginning and is now the director of HEART.
'When we started, there was no service in the Tri-Cities for helicopter EMS service such as our own,' Rowe said. 'And as we implemented it and continue to grow, we saw the need in other areas. So our second helicopter we put down in the Greene County, Hamblin County area, our third helicopter we put in the Norton, Jenkins area to serve that community. And our fourth helicopter is in Smyth County, Marion, Virginia,' Rowe told News Channel 11 from his base at the Elizabethton Municipal Airport.
Rowe said initially they employed six nurses, five paramedics and four pilots. He said that's times four now. As of the March 30 anniversary date, 37,900 patients have been transported in one of two ways.
'So there are two types of flights that we do. Basically, one is scene flights where a paramedic or fire department or police agency calls us to the scene. We pick up that patient and we fly them to the closest appropriate facility. The second is interfacility, which is when we take a patient from one facility to another, and that the intent of that is to go to a higher level of care at the receiving facility,' Rowe said.
Rowe says even though they contract with Ballad Health, they transport to the closest appropriate hospital, and it may not always be a Ballad facility to which the patient is taken.
'When we go on a scene, it is our responsibility to determine what the closest appropriate facility that is and depending on what region we're in,' Rowe said. 'That may be Roanoke Memorial Hospital, it may be Winston-Salem Burn Center, it could be UT Medical Center or East Tennessee Children's Hospital. Our goal is to take the patient to the closest appropriate facility for their injury or illness.'
Rowe says they can't save every life, but outcomes are better if a patient is transported by air rather than ambulance when minutes count.
'They do better in the long run. And they're in the hospital for a shorter amount of time,' Rowe said.
Larry Parlier is a testament to the difference minutes can make. He admits life hasn't always been easy since his accident, but he's alive.
'I'm just thankful for the opportunity to, to be here still,' Parlier said. 'My kids are grown, I've got two granddaughters now. So there's a lot of things I could have missed out on if it had not been for them.'
In addition to the medical flights, the program does community service events with area first responders.
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