On its first day in operation, Lehighton-based LifeFlight 6 transported a man suffering a severe heart attack from Tamaqua to Bethlehem in less than 20 minutes. In Bethlehem, the patient was treated in a cardiac catheter lab for a blocked artery.

In an ambulance, that drive would have taken more than an hour.

St. Luke’s officials say those results are the reason why they chose to locate the new helicopter in Carbon County.

“Having a helicopter in Carbon, Schuylkill and Monroe makes sense because of the inavailability of trauma centers by ground, not to mention weather considerations and terrain,” said Mark Lohman, the network’s Patient Services Manager. “The other thing we see a lot is two other time-related senior illnesses, heart attack and strokes.”

On July 1, the network started a partnership with Geisinger Health System to provide LifeFlight 6, a helicopter that will be stationed at Jake Arner Airport in Mahoning Township.

The helicopter will be on call 24/7 for emergencies in the St. Luke’s area.

Even before the merger with the local Blue Mountain Health System, St. Luke’s chose Lehighton as its base, because patients facing life-threatening conditions have further to travel. A helicopter flight from St. Luke’s Miners Campus in Coaldale to Bethlehem Campus is 15 to 18 minutes. It would take more than an hour in an ambulance, according to Mark Lohman, St. Luke’s Patient Care Manager.

“We had the helicopter there before the acquisition of Blue Mountain Health System. It makes sense to have a helicopter there. It helped us early on to get the sickest patients from miners to our tertiary center at Bethlehem.”

The new helicopter, an EC-145, is more advanced than what was previously used, and is capable of holding two patients. The hospital plans to store blood on board for transfusions, and even use an ECMO machine, which is used to help keep patients alive even after suffering trauma to their heart and lungs.

It provides additional safety measures for the crew and passengers. Twin engines allow landing in case of an emergency. If the weather turns bad, the helicopter can still land at trauma centers without being able to see the landing.

The pilots and crew all have night vision goggles.

Geisinger purchased the helicopter based on specifications provided by St. Luke’s.

“They probably found us the best helicopter in their fleet, they were not selfish by any means,” Lohman said.

On even days of the month, LifeFlight 6 will be the first helicopter dispatched when a situation requires it. On odd days, a Lehigh Valley Health Network’s MedEvac helicopter is dispatched first. After that, the closest helicopter from either network is dispatched. Both networks have helicopters based in Luzerne and Schuylkill counties.

LifeFlight 6 will also be responsible for transporting sick patients between St. Luke’s networks when needed.

St. Luke’s previously partnered with the PennSTAR program to station a helicopter at Jake Arner for more than a decade. Under that partnership, St. Luke’s used an aircraft and crew owned by a vendor, and Penn provided the medical personnel. Under the new partnership, St. Luke’s will lease its helicopter to Geisinger, and Geisinger will employ the pilot and crew.

The new flight crew is made up of a mix of former PennSTAR and Geisinger crew members.

Lohman said the decision to take on a new partner had more to do with St. Luke’s and Geisinger’s growing alliance rather than issues with Penn.

“It wasn’t that we had reason to leave, other than this was just a natural progression of our alignment with Geisinger for certain services,” Lohman said.