Midwest Neonatal Transport Team

By: Lydia Hartley and Bri Curry, Seniors, Blue Valley Northwest

During the Midwest Neonatal Transport Team visit, we learned a lot of really cool things about how this team is able to transport people in order to provide them the best care. The Neonatal Transport team members have a lot of knowledge about the medical field. As Medicine and Healthcare students, being able to talk with these experienced healthcare providers is inspiring because we get to hear all of the stories about the ways that they have helped others and changed their lives.

There are a lot of components that help decide whether or not someone should be transported, and if so, what is the best method. This team can drive people in an ambulance or fly them in a helicopter. They mentioned how the distance of the hospital does not always determine the travel method like you may think, because they have driven people a very long way instead of flying them. It depends on the patient’s physical condition as well as the weather. We can only imagine how scary it is for families to have to separate with their newborn children in order to provide them with the medical care needed.

We were able to see the exact equipment they used in their pediatric ambulance and even sit inside. Beforehand, we didn’t know there were different types of ambulances carrying different supplies in them. We were also very surprised with how they handle situations. They are faced with very difficult challenges and lots of things don’t go as planned, but they work together and communicate to figure out what is the best possible solution. Everyone that came to speak to us did something different but all worked together to build an amazing team while creating a family type of bond with each other.

Hearing about what they do and their amazing stories goes to show how it is critical to communicate and work with others to accomplish what needs to be done. At the end of the day, the opportunities CAPS provides its students are definitely beneficial; this opportunity being an amazing example.