Flight for your life

Tim Beard’s alarm blares to life, cutting through the silence of the small room and rousing the Life Flight nurse from a shallow sleep. Beard, 46, has just 10 minutes—eight minutes during daylight hours—to jump out of bed, pull on his flame-retardant jumpsuit, and climb into a fully equipped medical helicopter. The pilot checks the weather and begins his pre-flight check prior to departure. Equipped with what he calls his “everything bag” filled with medical supplies, Beard takes off into the sky, prepared to transport some of the most critical patients in our region.