AURORA, Ore. — An emergency call comes in over Michelle Lavina’s pager at about 4 p.m., but she and her crew have been ready all day.

    A Life Flight EC-135 helicopter sits outside the flight nurse’s base in this city south of Portland, primed with $400,000 of emergency medical equipment, fuel and enough power to lift a 350-pound person off the freeway.

    Lavina, 41, and flight nurse Holly Ilg, 30, hop in the rear-loading aircraft with little information except that a man who is bleeding to death needs transport from one hospital to another for surgery.

    By the time they’ve loaded up necessary supplies and given the all-clear, pilot Rick Holbrook, 33, has the rotors spinning and ready to go.

    Surely it has to be a long process.

    “From the time we get the call to liftoff, it’s usually about 10 minutes,” Holbrook said.

    It took another 15 minutes to reach the patient, and another 10 to transfer him. Doors open at the rear of the aircraft, where the patient was loaded in for care by the flight nurses.

    Without the Life Flight helicopter, essentially an ambulance in the sky, the transfer may have taken hours through Oregon traffic.

    The crew makes up a small portion of the Life Flight Network,which has served the Pacific Northwest for 30 years. Each of the five helicopter bases throughout Washington and Oregon serve a 150-mile radius when called upon for an emergency, but all have the ability to go further, Lavina said.

    Lewis County is no exception. When Life Flight choppers out of Longview can’t make it in time, services closer to the emergency like Airlift Northwest can respond. Each company works together along with firefighters, law enforcement and hospitals to ensure the best route is taken for a patient, Lavina said.

    Lavina and Ilg said they don’t mind working 12 hour shifts, and had a hard time thinking of a more exciting job. They both have years of emergency room experience in stationary hospitals, and said doing the same work on a patient in the back of a helicopter was the next big career step.

    “You have to have some experience for sure,” Ilg said. “We practice safety and protocol every day. Safety is our number one concern.”

    Safety is just one of the criteria the Aurora base met to win the internationally-recognized 2009 program of the year award from the Association of Air Medical Services. Judges look over multiple criteria before making their decision: years in operation, safety, customer service reviews, improvements to their company and revenue generation, among others.

    When they aren’t in the air, the crew studies for upcoming tests, coordinates with hospitals to cut down on response time, and hangs out in handsomely furnished living quarters.

    While they’re serious in the air, they’re a quirky family full of laughs on the ground.

    “You really couldn’t find better people to work with,” Ilg said. “When we’re ready and working together like that, I’ve never felt more safe.”

    The patients can rest relatively easy too, knowing they have a full fleet of helicopters, an airplane, and ground units on their side, Lavina said. With that arsenal, Life Flight can reach just about any destination, land and save lives, shaving precious time off a patient’s trip to the hospital.

    Indeed, a trip to the emergency room in a helicopter can be spendy. That’s why people can sign up for an inter-agency membership with Life Flight that automatically accepts insurance settlements and pays deductible costs, Lavina said.

    Flying back to base July 24, the crew changed their tone from business to pleasure after a debrief. Ilg pointed out awe-striking land formations as jokes were exchanged over the radio.

    They landed, primed the helicopter to go on the next call, and walked back to base.

    “Now for the waiting game,” Holbrook said.