By Molly Dunn
Reporter
Members of Baylor Medical Service Organization were treated with a visit from a local life flight helicopter crew and the Waco Fire Department on Wednesday in the Ferrell Center parking lot.
The life flight crew members explained many logistics and specifics about the helicopter and its capabilities to assist a patient. One crew member said that the helicopter crew could do CPR in the air and practically anything doctors can do in the intensive care unit or on an ambulance.
Many of these remarkable facts about life flight helicopters shocked members of the Medical Service Organization.
”They can carry a patient up to 350 pounds. [The helicopter] is so small, I couldn’t even imagine. He also said he fit a six-foot-five man in there,” Arlington junior Lynh Phan said.
After listening and asking questions, members sat in the cockpit, got closer looks at the equipment used on flight and interacted with the crew. The Waco Fire Department’s fire truck was also at the site for students to sit in and examine.
“I think just having a helicopter that’s kind of an ambulance at the same time come and land is pretty exciting,” organization president and Houston junior Corbin Goerlich said.
Medical Service Organization held this event specifically for its members to learn more about their field of study in the medical world.
“[Members] can get a hands-on experience to be able to interact with the life flight crew and the Waco Fire Department, to ask them questions, learn a little bit more about what they do specifically and see what kind of different tools are used in those different emergency situations that a lot of us in the Medical Service Organization do like to encounter,” Houston junior Tristan Hamner said.
Members of the Medical Servie Organization serve Baylor and Waco area through medical service.
“We’re primarily a service organization for pre-health students, anyone going into the medical field,” said Goerlich. “We basically provide our members opportunities for service, opportunities for hands-on medical, both training and experience. We have guest speakers to keep them in tuned to the medical field.”
Having the life flight crew land at Baylor and talk with Medical Service Organization members allowed them to learn more about the medical field, said Denver sophomore Sara Buhrman, who serves as secretary to the officers of the organization.
“It’s really good experience for people who want to be future doctors and everything to come out here and see firsthand something that they could very well be involved with,” Buhrman said.
Not all members of the organization want to work as a life flight crew member, but many enjoyed listening to what the crew members had to say about their daily routines.
“I’m actually an EMT, so I had heard about this before but I have never actually seen it. It seemed like the job was pretty hard compared to a physician. I have a lot of respect for them,” said Houston senior Ngoc Mui, who serves as secretary to the members of the organization.
Students interested in joining the Baylor Medical Service Organization can send an email to baylorMSO@gmail.com and come to an interest meeting that will be held in the fall semester.
