Local Air-Ambulance Team CALSTAR Shines After 19 Years

It took less than 10 minutes for the Gilroy-based CALSTAR Two helicopter to make the trip back from Watsonville, landing with a powerful blast of air from the two 710-horsepower engines driving the aircraft’s five rotor blades.

In moments, the crew—two flight nurses and a pilot—swung open the doors and began to resupply. Everything from fuel to sterile gloves was hastily replenished from the on-site stock kept near the landing pad at Saint Louise Regional Hospital.

This is, after all, the busiest location in the 11-base CALSTAR air ambulance system. Despite having just returned from transporting a woman hit by a car moments earlier, the next call could be right around the corner.

“Priority is flight-ready status, 24/7,” said Seth Rae, a flight nurse.

For nearly 20 years, the California Shock Trauma Air Rescue base at St. Louise has operated in a 150-nautical-mile area stretching from Santa Clara County to San Luis Obispo. With an average of two daily calls, Rae said that it’s hard to find someone more than one degree of separation away from a former CALSTAR patient.

“Whenever you hear about a patient being flown to a local hospital, almost inevitably, it’ll be CALSTAR,” he said.

This particular helicopter, an MD 902 Explorer, is the newest in the CALSTAR fleet and the only aircraft built ground-up for the company, said Rae. It can carry a patient at 120 miles per hour in a straight line and arrive at locations of severe trauma or medical crisis in minutes.

Most of the CALSTAR staff have spent years in the EMS and flight business, including Berle Bigelow, a pilot who started flying for the company in 2002.

“This is probably the best job there is as far as flying goes,” he said. “You really make a difference in people’s lives.

“You can’t even be considered for this job until you’ve been working in an emergency room for two to five years. It’s a group of highly experienced, type-A personalities.”

For Gilroy’s fire department, often the first on the scene in an emergency, CALSTAR is sometimes the only way to get a high-risk patient to medical care within the “golden hour” that could determine their survival, said Gilroy Fire Department Chief Dale Foster.

“It’s not that you can’t get a ground vehicle in—it’s the time involved,” said the fire chief.

It’s a similar situation for the California Highway Patrol. After nearly 20 years working in emergency services and seven years flying with CALSTAR, Rae said that the region’s many highways—and the related crashes—were one of the reasons the air ambulance stays so busy.

“We have a great relationship with them. We have to work together—it’s like a family,” said Jaime Rios, spokesman for the Gilroy-Hollister CHP.

Especially in hard-to-reach areas, Gilroy firefighters have to take care when recommending a place for the air ambulance to land. Slopes in the terrain can be deadly if they hit the helicopter's rotors during takeoff or landing, and the blast of air can send debris flying.

“They really rely on us to package the patient correctly and to look for a good landing zone,” Foster said.

While some calls are automatic, responders won’t recommend a CALSTAR transport on a whim, said the chief. There are specific criteria to consider, and the cost of a flight can be hefty.

How hefty? Insurance covers some, but patients can pay between $25,000–$30,000, said Rae.

There’s a reason for the price tag: Each Explorer, including its expansive array of medical and radio equipment, costs around $6.5 million, said Rae. Most bases have two aircraft, and after adding in the expensive jet fuel that gives the high-powered helicopter around three miles to the gallon and a staff with decades of experience, the hefty bill for air rescue starts to make sense.

Yet for the expense of operating the “flying emergency room,” CALSTAR won’t be checking your ability to pay before firing up the machine, he said.

“CALSTAR has an opinion,” said Rae. “You call, we haul.”

Many of its calls in the summer months include field workers who often lack insurance at all, said the flight nurse. The team applies the same standards as with any patient, called automatically in extreme crisis or when local emergency responders recommend the aid.

CALSTAR is not the only air ambulance in the region; Life Flight, based at Palo Alto’s Stanford Hospital, also runs medical aid and transport in a broad radius throughout the region. In major accidents, both agencies—and even neighboring CALSTAR bases—might respond simultaneously.

Unlike Life Flight, CALSTAR operates 11 bases throughout Northern and Central California, including fixed-wing aircraft that can provide rapid transport between hospitals.

When it comes to emerging from an accident with both your life and that $30,000 still in your wallet, Rae recommends the CALSTAR membership program that can cover an entire household’s flights for $45 a year. Around 20,000 people have already signed up for the program.

“I think that their ultimate goal is that, eventually, they can make all the flights free,” said Kerry Brown, another flight nurse at the base.

After the resupply, a mechanic began pouring over the aircraft. When the engine fired up for a test flight, smiles appeared on the faces of the staff watching from the ground.

“There’s hardly a day that goes by that someone doesn’t say, ‘I can’t believe we get paid for this,” said the pilot, Bigelow.