{"id":61866,"date":"2014-03-26T19:52:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T01:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-graduate-takes-flight-of-a-lifetime\/"},"modified":"2014-03-27T01:52:32","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T01:52:32","slug":"dolores-graduate-takes-flight-of-a-lifetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-graduate-takes-flight-of-a-lifetime\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores graduate takes flight of a lifetime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kelly
Kelly Baker, a Dolores High School graduate, poses at her office, a Flight For Life helicopter where she works as a flight medic, her dream job.<\/span>Courtesy Photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For Dolores local Kelly Baker, 43, helping the injured as a paramedic in an ambulance was her life calling.<\/p>\n

But apparently the view from the ground was not good enough, so now she arrives by air as a medic for Flight for Life, a high-tech rescue helicopter stationed at Mercy Hospital in Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the added aspect of flying,\u201d says Baker. \u201cIt\u2019s twofold: I get to help people and save lives, and you cannot fly in a place more beautiful than Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dolores High School graduate works out of a Eurocopter AS350 B3 that has a range of 120 miles and can fly up to 13,000 feet in altitude.<\/p>\n

Baker describes the service as a \u201cflying intensive-care unit\u201d that has more medical services than an ambulance.<\/p>\n

In addition to a paramedic, Flight For Life includes two nurses trained to provide a high level of care. Advanced heart monitoring, ventilators, medications, and blood reserves. A quick response and transport to a hospital can dramatically increase the chances of patient survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can stabilize and fly a patient to a hospital for emergency surgery in minutes, saving critical time, compared with driving there in an ambulance,\u201d Baker says.<\/p>\n

Ambulances are essential as well, she emphasizes, and she worked as paramedic in a high-volume district in Prescott, Ariz. for seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cParamedics make a good living, and the job is interesting and challenging. Every call is different, and you feel like you are making a difference,\u201d said Baker, who has been with Flight for Life for six months.<\/p>\n

Flight For Life also assists in search and rescue, wildfire monitoring and has been upgraded to find avalanche victims using a wide-ranging beacon that hangs out of the helicopter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is faster than a dog team and covers a lot of ground quickly,\u201d Baker said. \u201cWe also deploy the avalanche rescuer and his search dog then stand by for patient extrication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker recommends paramedic work for Type A personalities who care about saving lives. Critical thinking skills in pressure situations is a key component to the job, as well as handling 12-18 hour shifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a job for everyone, and it can be difficult working at high altitudes in extreme weather conditions,\u201d Baker says. \u201cI\u2019ve always had a goal of being a flight medic, so I got the experience and training, and my dream came true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

community’s rescue needs in Flight for Life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-61866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61866"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=61866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}