According to Tom Flanagan, chief operating officer of the Memorial Hermann Hospital-The Texas Medical Center, which runs the Life Flight program, the return of their helicopter prompted them to contact PHI, which was based at Bryan airport. PHI was informed of the first flight's failure and weighed the risks before it took the assignment
Unfortunately, the second attempt was not successful and resulted in the death of its passenger and three crew members on Monday morning.
Although praises were heaped on the PHI crew by the company and the family of the dead patient, David Disman, the relatives of the crew questioned the necessity of airlifting the patient and the cloud conditions at the time of the trip.
Dr. Kenneth Mattox, chief of staff of the Ben Taub General Hospital, said the use of medical helicopters over vehicular ambulances has been questioned since there is little gain in time because the chopper needs to fly from an airport and then to a second hospital.
The 58-year old Disman was diagnosed by doctors at the Huntsville Memorial Hospital as suffering from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. To prevent his bleeding to death, doctors reduced his blood pressure, then requested for his transfer to the Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston as he had an 80 percent chance of dying with his aneurysm.
An air safety investigator probing the crash has yet to determine the immediate cause of the accident. Jennifer Kaiser from the National Transportation Safety Board said it may take them a year to determine the cause of the helicopter mishap.
