LifeNet leaves Air Methods after 43 years as Pafford launches Texarkana helicopter base with the same company

Texarkana’s air ambulance picture changed twice this week, as a partnership dating to 1983 came to an end and a new one took off in its place.

LifeNet Air Medical Services, which has flown critically ill and injured patients out of Texarkana for 43 years, began operating with a new aviation partner, Metro Aviation, on Thursday, Oct. 1. The move ends LifeNet’s long relationship with Air Methods, the company that helped launch the program in the early 1980s.

Air Methods is not leaving town. The Colorado-based company has teamed up with Hope-based Pafford Medical Services, and their new Pafford Air Med helicopter base in Texarkana is now in service, Pafford announced Thursday.

LifeNet moves to Metro Aviation

LifeNet says the switch does not change its nonprofit ownership, name or mission. The air program remains part of LifeNet EMS.

Along with the new partnership, LifeNet launched its own in-house air dispatch at its Hot Springs Communications Center. Flight requests now go directly to LifeNet’s communications team, whose dispatchers completed air communications training through Metro Aviation.

LifeNet’s number for all flight requests is now 833-611-LIFE (5433). The organization is asking hospitals, EMS agencies and other partners to update their contact lists and share the number with anyone who requests air transport.

Metro will initially fly EC135 helicopters for LifeNet. Helicopter bases serve Hot Springs; Texarkana, Texas; and Daingerfield, Texas, and LifeNet’s fixed-wing airplane remains based in Texarkana.

LifeNet says its critical care capabilities are unchanged. Flight crews will continue to manage ventilators and transport patients supported by Impella heart pumps, and the helicopters carry packed red blood cells and plasma so crews can give blood products in flight.

“LifeNet Air Medical Services has been serving its communities for more than four decades, and there’s a tremendous amount of history and trust behind that name,” said Todd Stanberry, vice president of Metro Aviation.

Stanberry said Metro’s role is to provide safe, reliable aviation services while LifeNet keeps doing what it has done since 1983. “We are proud to welcome LifeNet into the Metro family,” he said.

Metro Aviation was founded in 1982 and began providing air medical aviation services in 1983. It now supports programs across the country through aircraft operations, maintenance and aviation training.

LifeNet is working with hospitals, EMS agencies, fire departments and emergency management officials to share transition information and set up aircraft safety and landing zone training.

A partnership as old as the program

LifeNet’s ties to Air Methods go back to the very beginning. According to LifeNet’s history, Don Ruggles worked with Air Methods founder Roy Morgan to bring Arkansas its first full-time air medical service, driven by the loss of his son, Tony, who Ruggles believed might have survived had a helicopter been available.

The program’s first flight on June 18, 1983, carried a 19-year-old injured in a traffic crash from Naples, Texas, to Texarkana.

For decades, Air Methods owned and operated LifeNet’s helicopters and employed the pilots, while LifeNet supplied the flight nurses and paramedics. Those aircraft were Bell 407s.

Pafford Air Med opens Texarkana base

Air Methods and Pafford announced their partnership Sept. 29, saying the new Pafford Air Med program would start in October with bases in Texarkana and Arkadelphia. Texarkana opened first and flies a brand-new Bell 407GXi helicopter. The Arkadelphia base will use a Bell 407 already in the Air Methods fleet.

Each base will be staffed around the clock, with Air Methods pilots and mechanics working alongside Pafford flight clinicians. The aircraft can carry specialized equipment for complex cardiac patients, including Impella devices, intra-aortic balloon pumps and ZOLL AutoPulse NXT devices.

Air Methods Vice President of Field Operations Michael McGregory said the partnership means southern Arkansas residents “continue to have access to care” no matter how far they live from a trauma center.

Pafford CEO Jamie Pafford-Gresham called the program “a natural extension” of the company’s commitment to bringing resources closer to the communities it serves.

Pafford, founded in 1967 and headquartered in Hope, is a family-owned EMS provider serving Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.

To request Pafford Air Med, call 844-324-7367.