Greeley’s Med Evac celebrates 40 years and more than 30,000 missions

Med Evac celebrates 40 years in northern Colorado. Photo courtesy of Code 10 Photography.

By Dan England

Thomas Lang hopped out of the Med Evac helicopter and ran through the strip mall to a waiting car that would take him to a patient in trouble. As he landed on the front seat, out of breath, ready to dash to the job, one of his teammates turned to him. 

“Fasten your seat belt,” he said. 

Lang was in one of his first months as a nurse for the Med Evac team, and though he was passing with flying colors, he’d had a hard time adjusting to the uncertainty of practicing medicine by helicopter. He was an ICU nurse for North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley and Banner Health. Working in an ICU is a difficult job — just look at what medical workers have gone through during the pandemic — but it’s a controlled, predictable environment. Nothing was predictable on the helicopter: On his very first call, he was greeted by an angry dog. He didn’t know whether they’d land next to a road, or on the side of a mountain or next to a rural house. They would fly in snow, next to a crop-duster or the kind of summer heat that made waves off the asphalt. He’s now been in the job for 13 years, and he still asks himself, every day before he starts, if he’s ready for it. He uses the story about the seat belt as an example of how his teammates watched out for him, cared for him and kept him safe in a job rife with danger. 

Thomas Lang shows Med Evac’s tracking system on his phone. Lang has been working on the Med Evac helicopter for 13 years. Photo by Dan England.

“It was the patience and leadership of my partners 13 years ago that got me through it,” Lang said. “You have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable every day.” 

As the Med Evac celebrates its 40th anniversary with Banner Health with a celebration Saturday, Aug. 13, which will include live music, food trucks and flyovers at Island Grove Regional Park, Lang is a big reason why, in 40 years, the helicopter hasn’t had what Lang called a “major incident.” No one on the team’s faced severe injuries from a runaway blade, a crash or something in that uncontrollable environment. 

That’s significant, especially considering Med Evac, which was once called Air Life of Greeley, a name more people might recognize, has flown more than 30,000 missions. The team will fly as far east as Lincoln, Neb., up to Walden, and as far west as Steamboat or Vail. There are bases in Boulder and Akron. But safety is always first: They don’t make decisions on when they fly — that’s at the discretion of the dispatcher, a paramedic on scene, or, in the case of a transfer, a doctor — but they won’t go even if one out of the team of three doesn’t feel good about the conditions. 

“That’s the backbone that’s kept us safe,” he said. “There’s no repercussions for saying no.” 

Lang was recruited by a former director who wanted to go back to bedside nursing, and now as a supervisor, he hires others. The requirements are demanding, with three years experience in an ICU or as a paramedic before they can apply and basically a year’s training, some of it on the job, once they are hired. Lang said the team looks for a calm person who can assess and organize a lot of weird, difficult factors, both medically and otherwise, and someone without ego: They are expected to swallow a lot of feedback every time they fly and recognize there’s always a way to improve.

Lang calls especially difficult situations “humblers,” and there are a lot of them. He’s seen a lot of trauma, with crashes and oil explosions and fires, and seconds count in the more common heart attacks and strokes. Even the transfers from one hospital to another can be tense: He’s cared for babies that could fit in his hand and those facing emergency surgeries. 

Boulder Fire Rescue, AMR, Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks, and Med Evac respond to help a downed paraglider. Photo courtesy of Code 10 Photography.

“You have to put your pride aside and take the feedback,” Lang said. “EMS people are used to that, but as a nurse at first, that was hard. I wasn’t used to it.” 

But he takes pride in the way the helicopter has changed medicine. Here’s just one example: A flight to Grand Lake, a trip that would take at least three hours in a vehicle, takes 25 minutes. There’s an entire ICU in the copter, with a skilled team to perform those functions, meaning nearly everyone, no matter how far or how bad it seems, has a chance where they wouldn’t before. 

“I love being outside,” he said. “I love the autonomy of the job.  And I love the teamwork of the people we work with.”

To attend the celebration 

The 40th anniversary celebration starts at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, at Island Grove Regional Park, 501 N. 14th Ave. in Greeley. The two-hour event includes live music and food trucks and is free.