Life Flight up and operating in Rexburg

Rexburg’s Life Flight is up and operating 24/7 from the airport in town. It serves hospitals needing to transfer patients from Teton Valley Hospital, Steele Memorial Center, St. John’s Medical Center and Madison Memorial Hospital

“In a lot of those cases time is of essence for any of those issues so being able to have access to a helicopter being able to get them medical attention is a really critical part of medical care,” Doug McBride from Madison Memorial Hospital.

It will also help injured tourists in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. Chief Corey Child of the Madison Fire Department said it’s not only the national parks they cover.

“It could be a farm injury out on a distant farm somewhere, it could be a drowning in a back country hot spring, it could be different trauma things out on the highway far away from a hospital,” he said.

Child and McBride said the flight base will cut down on response times in life or death situations.

“The services they can provide will again will save lives and will give them opportunities to rescue these individuals to and get them to care immediately and for that purpose it’s going to be a great benefit for our community here,” McBride said.

Life Flight Network said its Rexburg base would give more than $1 million to the economy through jobs and goods.