Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Sunday, May 11, 2008
Med Flight crew remembered
Dr. Darren Bean, a father of two young children, worked tirelessly to improve emergency medical systems.
Mark Coyne, a nurse at UW Hospital since 1981, also had a pilot’s license.
Pilot Steve Lipperer, who was married to a Med Flight doctor, had flown for the transport service for eight years.
The loss of the three men in a Med Flight helicopter crash late Saturday near La Crosse reverberated Sunday throughout the Madison-area’s tight-knit medical community.
The aircraft crashed shortly after its 10:45 p.m. takeoff about four miles from La Crosse, officials said. The crew was returning to Madison after having transferred a patient to Gundersen Lutheran Hospital.
Bean “was one of those people who have a million different things they want to do, and they’re doing them all at once,” said Dr. Paul Stiegler, medical director of Dane County’s Emergency Medical Services, who worked with Bean on improvements to the area’s emergency medical systems.
 Mark Hanson, Director of Med Flight at a press conference this morning in Madison. Donna Katen-Bahensky, is middle, and Peg Van Bree, Chief Operating Officer UW Hospital and Clinic is right. A Press conference was held Sunday May 11, 2008 at the American Family Childrens Hospital to release information about the missing UW Hospital Med Flight helicopter that was found Sunday near La Crosse. Steve Apps-State Journal. |
“He was bringing us to the next generation” of resuscitation techniques and heart attack responses, Stiegler said.
“We are all devastated,” he said.
Bean was married to Dr. Stacey Bean, an emergency physician at St. Mary’s Hospital. They have two young children, Caitlyn and Parker.
Coyne, who taught paramedic classes at Madison Area Technical College, loved being in the air so much he obtained his own pilot’s license, flying to destinations as far away as the Caribbean, said Melody Carlino, his first wife.
“He loved to fly,” she said.
Lipperer, with Med Flight since 2000, had flown for more than 20 years, said Heather Grant, a UW Hospital nurse and friend of Pipperer and his wife, Dr. Desiree Lacharite, a Med Flight physician.
“He was a very calm, responsible guy,” Grant said. “He loved the outdoors.”
The crash has grounded Med Flight’s other helicopter indefinitely, program director Mark Hanson said Sunday morning at an emotional press conference.
Other air services in the area or ground ambulances will handle emergency patients, he said.
The Med Flight helicopter was found about 8:40 a.m. Sunday in a wooded hillside about four miles from the La Crosse airport. It may have flown into the hill or struck some trees, said Margaret Van Bree, chief operating officer of UW Hospital.
Bean had worked at UW Hospital since 2002, and Coyne had been there since 1981. Lipperer worked for Air Methods, a Denver company from which the hospital leased the helicopter.
At about 8:30 p.m. Saturday the crew flew from UW Hospital to Gundersen Lutheran Hospital in La Crosse, Van Bree said.
Dr. Ryan Wubben, associate medical director of MedFlight, said the crew flew to another location — possibly Prairie du Chien — to pick up a patient and transport the patient to Gundersen because the Gundersen helicopter was busy.
Wubben said it is commonplace for medical helicopters in Wisconsin to provide coverage for each other. “We do it all the time,” Wubben said.
The pilot checked the weather before leaving Madison, and there was no concern, Hanson said. Lipperer had started his regular 12-hour shift at 7 p.m.
At about 10:45 p.m., the helicopter took off from the La Crosse airport and wasn’t heard from again, Van Bree said.
The pilot was operating visually and not relying on instruments, Hanson said. He said he didn’t know why.
A search began about 11 p.m. after the helicopter couldn’t be reached by radio. Poor weather prevented authorities from searching by air, so they searched by ground, Hanson said.
The crash site was found off Keil Coulee Road in the town of Medary by firefighters searching on foot. Victims’ families were brought to UW Hospital shortly after the hospital learned the copter was missing, according to Adrianne Cisler, director for emergency services.
“They were here most of the night while the search and rescue was in process,” she said.
But no one knew until 8:40 a.m. that the copter had crashed.
The helicopter was leased last year from Air Methods and was an American Eurocopter EC 135, Van Bree said. Med Flight also started leasing its second helicopter last year from Air Methods.
The two helicopters, along with several others, were grounded for about a week a month ago because of “paperwork issues,” Hanson said. There were no mechanical problems that led to the grounding, he said.
“These particular helicopters are the most popular make and model of helicopters used in EMS across the country,” Hanson said.
Air Methods owns about 350 helicopters, leasing them to emergency medical services around the country, said company spokesman Craig Yale.
“All machines have bugs that have be worked out sometimes,” Yale said. “But there were no big, glaring problems with the aircraft.”
The last fatal crash involving one of the company’s helicopters was in Southern California in December, 2006, Yale said.
Med Flight’s other helicopter won’t fly again until the FAA says it can, Hanson said.
The Federal Aviation Administration has contacted the hospital. Air Methods, who owns the helicopter, will deal with the FAA investigation, hospital officials said.
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