Carilion Clinic’s Life-Guard crew returns from hurricane deployment

A small team went with a helicopter to Louisiana to assist in relief efforts, and sharpened their skills for use back at home.

ROANOKE, VA. – Carilion Clinic’s Life-Guard has returned back to southwest Virginia after deploying to Louisiana to help with hurricane relief.

The Life-Guard crew was just one of dozens from across the country to respond. They gathered with other air teams to help with patients, logistics and provide support in the area.

Carilion routinely loans out Life-Guard for these types of large scale disaster relief efforts. Flight nurse Kellie Lavine was one of the crew members to go, and said while they spent most of their time on standby, this makes them better at their jobs.

“We shared a lot of ideas and this is what you do at this program, we within some of the same aircraft, how do they mount certain equipment, what are their procedures and kind of looked at ways we can improve ourselves,” Lavine said.

While they were away other crews remained in our area ready to answer the call. They even brought in an extra helicopter for backup in case they needed it.