A new helicopter will take to the skies over Central Texas on Tuesday. Texas Children’s Hospital has added a helicopter to its Kangaroo Crew intensive care transport team, which previously used only ambulances to bring patients to its Austin facility. 

The team will be able to travel 120 nautical miles to pick up a patient. The hospital, which opened almost two years ago, has launched programs that are attracting patients from across Texas and around the country, said Dr. Jeff Shilt, the president of Texas Children’s in Austin. “Having a helicopter for a pediatric hospital is really a differentiator for us.” 

The $15 million investment makes Texas Children’s the only hospital — pediatric or adult — in Austin with a dedicated helicopter. The other hospitals use STAR Flight.

The air transport program will expand this summer with a larger helicopter that will seat four in the bay instead of three and fly up to 200 nautical miles. That will take this helicopter beyond Waco, Brownwood, San Antonio and College Station, where this current helicopter can go, to near Dallas, San Angelo, Corpus Christi and Beaumont. Texas Children’s also has a plane that is based in Houston that can carry patients who are much further than 200 nautical miles. 

The helicopter also will be used locally when traffic on MoPac Boulevard or Interstate 35 would make an ambulance trip longer than 30 minutes to an hour.

The helicopter’s crew of four pilots, critical care nurses and respiratory therapists is based at the Georgetown Executive Airport, which is seven minutes of flying time to the hospital in North Austin. 

Each time the helicopter takes off, a respiratory therapist and a registered nurse travels with it. The medical team has been trained in trauma care and has multiple certifications. They also can bring a patient-specific specialized doctor or nurse practitioner if needed. There is a seat for a guardian to ride with their child. 

Inside the helicopter is a miniature intensive care unit with ventilators, monitors and oxygen tanks that can be moved in and out to stabilize a patient in a hospital, during the flight and after landing at the Texas Children’s helipad until the patient is connected to hospital machines.

“We take the ICU to them, stabilizing them and bring them back to a higher level of care,” said Kelley Young, a respiratory therapist with 19 years of critical care team experience working in a helicopter.

The patients are strapped into a sled that is tied down to the helicopter. That sled can be put onto a gurney to take the patient in and out of the helicopter. For smaller patients, such as babies, there are parts that are added to secure them to the sled.

The team is prepared for an emergency, including each having a survival kit on them and an additional one in the helicopter.

“We do a lot of training and a lot of simulations,” said John Samluk, a critical care nurse with the team.

They also can talk to everyone in the helicopter using headsets and call to hospital staff at either end of the journey to relay or receive updates. 

AUSTIN, Texas — Tensions remained high in downtown Austin on Sunday following an anti-ICE protest that organizers say ended with multiple arrests and an aggressive police response.

Members of the activist group Dare to Struggle Austin said they had been gathered outside the Travis County Jail since 9 p.m. Saturday as they awaited the release of protesters taken into custody during the demonstration.

During a Sunday afternoon press conference, organizers described what they called a brutal response by law enforcement during the protest, which they said drew more than 100 people to the area outside the JJ Pickle Federal Building downtown.

The protest was held in response to the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Organizers accused both the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Austin Police Department of cracking down on demonstrators, saying officers charged into the crowd using bicycles and fired pepper spray pellets.

At least seven people were arrested, according to organizers, including one person they say was detained after the protest had ended while walking to their car. The Austin Police Department estimates they will have more accurate arrest numbers to report on Monday.

Police detain protesters as tensions rise at Austin’s ‘End ICE Terror’ protest

The confrontation followed hours of escalating tension between protesters and law enforcement, and as demonstrators blocked traffic at a busy downtown intersection.

“I think that it’s definitely not okay that people are dying in detention centers and getting shot by ICE agents,” said Emilia, a member of Dare to Struggle Austin. “That’s what’s important, not traffic.”

At Sunday’s press conference, the group called for all arrested protesters to be released and for charges against them to be dropped. Organizers also demanded murder charges against Jonathon Ross and all ICE agents involved in Good’s death, charges against officers they accuse of using excessive force, and for ICE to leave Austin.

Gov. Greg Abbott responded to the protest on social media, writing “Texas is not Minnesota,” and saying the Texas Department of Public Safety would not put up with defiant protesters.

In a statement to CBS Austin, he said, “What happened in Minnesota is the direct result of years of reckless and dangerous rhetoric from national Democratic leaders. Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers have the right to defend themselves while carrying out their lawful responsibility. Using a vehicle as a weapon, threatening officers, or attempting to obstruct the enforcement of the law is dangerous and inexcusable. ICE agents should never have to fear for their lives for doing their jobs. In Texas, we back the men and women in uniform, we enforce the law, and put public safety as a top priority.” – Texas Governor Greg Abbott.