SOUND THE SIRENS!
1.1 MILLION MILES & 10,000 PATIENTS LATER,
DRISCOLL’S TRANSPORT TEAM TURNS 10-YEARS-OLD

Driscoll Children’s Hospital Transport Team 10th Birthday
Thursday, November 17, 2005
10 a.m. – 12 Noon
Driscoll’s front lawn (near the helipad)
Free and open to the public

(Corpus Christi, TX) Happy 10th birthday! Whether its’ wheels or wings, Driscoll Children's Hospital’s Transport Team has braved the skies and pounded the pavement transporting sick and critically ill children to the hospital’s main campus for specialized pediatric treatment and care. In honor of a stellar decade of service, Driscoll will be hosting a 10th Birthday Party for their Transport Team on Thursday, November 17, 2005 from 10 a.m. until 12 Noon on the hospital’s front lawn, near the helipad. The event is free and open to the public.

The general public, as well as Driscoll staff and patients, will have the opportunity meet Transport Team members, participate in stretcher races, airplane races, and mobilization demonstrations, as well as see and touch transport equipment and view old photos and scrapbooks. Several transport helicopters and ambulances will also be on-site for birthday party-goers to tour and sound the sirens, push buttons, and honk horns.

About the Transport Team
Driscoll’s neonatal and pediatric critical care transport services are an internationally-recognized and the only dedicated neonatal and pediatric transport program serving South Texas and Mexico. Each year, Driscoll travels thousands of miles transporting critically ill or injured children to and from local, regional, national, and international referral sites. The critical care transport services offer emergent, timely, comprehensive, advanced medical services for neonatal and pediatric trauma, acute cardiac and respiratory events, as well as emergent surgical and medical needs – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Whether by ground or air, Driscoll’s Transport Team offers speedy access to specialized pediatric services when young patients and their families in South Texas and Mexico need it most.

Did you know?

• Since beginning in 1995, the Transport Team has traveled more than 1.1 million miles on the road by ambulance and in the skies by plane and helicopter.
• Transport Teams have successfully completed more than 10,000 transports in 10 years.
• The Transport “fleet” is comprised of four (4) state-of-the-art neonatal/pediatric critical care-equipped ambulances, two (2) 421 Cessna twin-engine fixed wing aircraft, and two (2) helicopters - a Bell 407 and an A-Star.
• Two specific teams are located in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley and take care of Valley to Valley transports.
• 33% of all transport calls are transported by fixed-wing aircraft, 63% by ambulance, and 4% by helicopter.
• 30% of all transports are N.I.C.U. related, 23% are P.I.C.U., and 25% are Emergency Department or patient floor related.
• In 1995, the Transport Team hosted only 12 members. Today, it has grown to 53.
• The Transport Team’s mascot is the Sea Horse. Like a marsupial (kangaroo or panda bear), the sea horse carries its young in its pouch ... just as Team members carry their young patients so that they may receive specialized pediatric care.

About Driscoll Children’s Hospital
“Improve the health of adults and you give them back their health …
Improve the health of children and you give them their life.”

Since opening its doors in 1953, Driscoll Children’s Hospital has been offering hope and healing to the children of South Texas for half a century. The facility is a 189-bed pediatric tertiary care center with pediatric board-certified specialists representing 19 medical and nine surgical specialties. Each year, more than 6,000 children are admitted for inpatient care, 5,000 for day surgery, and 50,000 for outpatient primary and specialty care, as well as 40,000 for emergency care, as the first South Texas hospital with emergency services exclusively for children. Additionally, Driscoll maintains a state-of-the-art ground/air transport team, 20-bed pediatric intensive care unit, 40-bed neonatal intensive care unit, and specialized medical outreach.

www.driscollchildrens.org

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