First Annual Archie League Medal of Safety Awards:
Audio Tape Transcript 

SOUTHWEST REGION

FORT WORTH AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER

CONTROLLER: Chris Owen

OWEN: Lifeguard, six niner two, I’ve got the medical center on the line. Do you have a satellite phone or anything like that?

LN11692: No, sir. In fact, that’s our problem right now. We’re probably going to need to go through flight service. We have a great deal of information to disseminate through the frequency and we didn’t want to tie you up.

OWEN: Roger that, sir.

LN11692: If you would let Children’s Medical Center know that we’ve got a critical patient on board. We need a doctor waiting for us at the aircraft. The second thing is we should have the frequency but we don’t have it. Ask them what the frequency is.

CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER: Children’s Transport, this is Amber.

OWEN: Hi Amber, this is Chris Owen at Fort Worth Air Traffic Control Center. And I’ve got a lifeguard one one six niner two out over Midland right now that’s inbound for your hospital. They’ve got a very critical patient on board and will need a doctor at the aircraft. They’ve been trying to get you through flight service and aren’t having any success. What I’m basically doing is I’ve got two handsets that I’m keying up for him and a speaker. I can let him listen to you. But I don’t have a way to broadcast you back to him so I’ll just relay any of your questions.

LN11692: We’ve got the nurse here and she’s going to talk to you for a second.

NURSE: Well there’s a lot of information. It’s imperative that she know everything that we’ve done for this patient.

CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER: OK. Chris? I’ve got Dr. Thompson on the line.

NURSE: We are presently bagging this child. Our temperature is up to 101.5. I have not given Tylenol because the baby is 24 hours old.

OWEN: OK. Children’s, did you copy all that?

CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER: Yes, we did.

NURSE: I think things are going in the wrong direction.

LN11692 PILOT: The nurse went to the back because the patient is crashing.

LN11692: The patient does have a blood pressure.

OWEN: And they advise the patient does have a blood pressure and that’s the only information they’ve given us at this point.

LN11692: OK, I can tell you now that they are hand-bagging the patient.

OWEN (To Children’s Medical Center): Sorry, we’ve lost you one more time. We’ve got a little more information from the lifeguard when you’re ready for it.

LN11692: Let the doctor know they have all the information right now. They’re busy working but they seem more relaxed.

LN11692: We want to thank you very much for your time and for all your help.

OWEN: And Amber, lifeguard said they have all they need right now. We’ll go ahead and let you go and we’ll give you a ring back if there are any additional problems.

CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER: OK, Chris, thank you so much.

OWEN: You bet. You all have a good one. Bye.