Cooper University Health Care's air medical service is celebrating its 10-year anniversary in South New Jersey.

Cooper Air Medical Services launched on 4 December 2010. Since launching, it has provided lifesaving care to the community, transporting nearly 4,000 patients, comprising 2,400 inter-facility transports and more than 1,500 transports directly from a trauma location to the hospital.

“We provide rapid air medical transportation directly from the scene to our Level I trauma Centre as well as rapid transfer for patients at other hospitals who are critically ill or injured and need the advanced medical or surgical care only available at Cooper,” says Cooper co-CEO Anthony J. Mazzarelli.

“Time to care is critical in emergency trauma situations. We believe it is a great privilege to serve eight counties in central and southern New Jersey with this vital, lifesaving air medical transport service,” adds Kevin O'Dowd, co-CEO. “And while primarily providing services in New Jersey, we are also licensed in Delaware and Pennsylvania to serve as needed.”

Cooper's helicopter air fleet includes Cooper 1 and Cooper 2, both EC135 T2+ Eurocopters owned and operated by Metro Aviation. To ensure safe and swift patient transport both are equipped with GPS, weather radar, an aircraft collision avoidance system and night vision goggles, as well as an onboard system providing advanced flight data monitoring, tracking and communication capabilities. An experienced crew, including Cooper flight nurses, staffs each helicopter and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Cooper 1 is based at the Millville Municipal airport in Millville, Cumberland County, and Cooper 2 is based out of the Flying W airport in Medford, Burlington County.

Rick Rohrbach is the director of air and ground medical services at Cooper, and Dominic Parone is the lead flight nurse. Each of the crewmembers has the highest national certification in their respective specialties including Flight Paramedic Certification (FP-C) and Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN). Fifteen flight nurses, 17 flight paramedics, eight pilots and four mechanics staff the Cooper team.

“In every emergency, patients can trust that Cooper Air Medical Services will provide them the highest level of care, compassion and professionalism,” says Rohrbach. “I cannot say enough about the skill and dedication the Cooper flight team demonstrates on a daily basis. I am extremely proud of our team on this 10-year milestone and the recognition they so richly deserve.”

Earlier this year, Cooper Air Medical Services team member Steve Teitelman, flight nurse coordinator, was honoured by Cooper as the 2020 Nurse of the Year.