ROCKLAND — Joe Moore was on his first day back at LifeFlight from paternity leave when the transport request came in from Pen Bay Medical Center in 2009. A three-week-old boy named Alden was seriously ill, and needed the critical care of the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland.

Like most hospitals in Maine, Pen Bay Medical Center does not have the staff to accompany a baby aboard the helicopter, let alone an acute care neonatal team. Between the time the father handed Alden over, and the reunion of the mother who’d traveled ahead to Maine Med, Alden’s fate remained in the hands of Moore and the flight nurse.

For Moore, a paramedic who also works with Rockland Fire/EMS, leaving his own healthy baby at home to go to work already caused some emotional upheaval. When the father of the ill three week old, (only a few days younger than his own) put his newborn into Moore’s hands, Moore found the act extremely touching.  

“I was really, really struck, just completely humbled by the trust and faith that people put in us,” Moore said. “Being able to have equipment like this to back up the skills and the training that we have, and provide this level of care that no one else can. It was a pretty profound moment for me.”

Baby Alden was the first to use the helicopter’s isolette. According to Moore, LifeFlight helicopters are neither warm nor quiet. But the isolette crib is both, as well as a means of monitoring vital signs during the trip that many newborns have made from rural hospitals all over the state.

LifeFlight owns two of these machines. With the proceeds donated from the athlete sponsorships at this year’s Islesboro Swim, LifeFlight will purchase a third isolette for the third helicopter, which is still in the fundraising stage.

Organizers of the Islesboro Swim, a 3.2-mile stroke from Ducktrap in Lincolnville to the ferry terminal on Islesboro, set a fundraising goal of $100,000. On the eve of the Swim, $107,040 had been donated. Last year’s swim also raised $100,000, but $40,000 came from a match-grant donor.

This year, Camden National Bank contributed $10,000 and the Jett Travolta Foundation contributed $5,000. This corporate money will be used for the crew, who are in need of lighter helmets to ease the weight of nighttime vision apparatus and headsets.

The contributions from the combined $92,040 raised by the 80 athletes is designated to the isolette.

Organizers honored the top 10 individual fundraisers, starting with the 10th-place person raising funds of $3,101, and ending with the top donor raising $6,884.

This top donor, Matt, is the husband of K.C. Ford, one of four survivors of a small plane crash off of Matinicus four years ago. Both LifeFlight helicopters were used to transport those four very seriously injured passengers to Maine Medical Center in Portland and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

Now, four years later, K.C. was able to paddle the three-mile course as Matt’s support person.

As Matt told the Islesboro audience after the Swim, K.C.’s current abilities are proof of “the power of LifeFlight.”

Swimming with the fish so the birds can fly in the sky

How do you do what you do?

Camden helps LifeFlight borrow money for new plane, expand services

First responders in flight over Maine

Donating $3.3 million, Linda Bean, employees and North Haven help make LifeFlight’s third helicopter a reality

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com.