LifeFlight of Maine brings the ICU to patients. By helicopter. Plane. Specialty ground ambulance. They meet people on the hardest days of their lives and move them toward care. In one of the most rural states, bases in Bangor, Lewiston, and Sanford let teams reach 90% of Maine within 45 minutes — shrinking long drives, ferry rides, and gaps in access for patients who can’t wait.
An operational team of about 120 professionals powers the work. Crews of three—pilot, critical care nurse, paramedic — move more than 2,500 patients a year, about one every 3.5 hours, day and night. Since 1998, they’ve cared for more than 40,000 people. Nearly 90% of transports are hospital to hospital; the rest are from the scene. The fleet runs three helicopters, plus one airplane and three specialty ground ambulances. Each carries more than $500,000 in advanced equipment.
These numbers are impressive, but what matters most is the lives served and saved — and the human part. Steady hands. Clear voices. Reassurance during transport. Hope when needed most. That’s the heart of this work: skill, yes, but also presence, humility, and care people remember — and now can thank directly.
Enter LifeFlight of Maine’s Grateful Patient Program, which invites patients and families to reconnect — send a note, share an update, reunite with their crew, volunteer, or donate. It’s all meaningful, but the reunions are something else. You hear it often: “I wouldn’t be here without you.” Simple words. Never small. When patients and crew members meet again, the story feels full circle, and the healing is real and shared.
LIFEFLIGHT IN REAL LIFE. MEET DOMINIQUE.
Dominique Quintal and her husband, Nicholas, were on a “babymoon” in Bar Harbor when her water broke at 4 a.m. She was 30 weeks. First baby. Not the plan. Her doctor said to get to the nearest hospital fast, which on Mount Desert Island is MDI Hospital. They stabilized her and called LifeFlight.
Bad weather complicated things further. LifeFlight sent a ground critical care team from Bangor: Charlotte Duncan and Sarah Healey. An ICU on wheels.
Duncan and Healey met Quintal, reviewed the plan, and started the transfer to Bangor. Ten minutes into the drive, her contractions jumped from eight minutes apart to two. The crew called ahead to ready the Emergency Department and NICU.
Today, when Quintal recalls the day, it isn’t just the medical part that surfaces. It’s the way Charlotte and Healey carried her through it — calm voices, steady checks, clear instructions, and, yes, humor to keep her centered. “Whatever you do, don’t push,” they told her. She didn’t.
They reached Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center around noon. Quintal refused to push until her husband made it. He did, and at 12:07 p.m., their daughter was born. At 12:16, she held her for the first time — 12/16 is Quintal’s birthday and the birthday of her best friend who passed away. That number has always mattered to her. Now it marks motherhood, too.
The next chapter was hard. Quintal didn’t hold her again for three days. They lived in hotels and Airbnbs. Eighty-one days in the NICU. About three weeks after birth, LifeFlight transported their daughter by ambulance to Massachusetts to bring care closer to home.
Quintal thought she’d never set foot in Maine again. Too much trauma. But a year later, she came back for something different: gratitude. LifeFlight’s Grateful Patient Program helped set up a reunion with the crew. Hugs. Photos. Joy and gratitude topped the list.
“It was very healing, for all of us,” Quintal said. “We’re here because of you.” She stressed appreciation for the whole team: “It’s not just the nurses. It’s the drivers, the pilots, everyone.”
Quintal and her husband brought Raelynn back to Maine to thank the people who helped start their family. Now, they’re expecting a baby boy.
THE CREW PERSPECTIVE. MEET SARAH.
Sarah Healey remembers the dispatch: preterm labor on MDI. Weather grounded the helicopter. They headed out and made a plan — be ready for anything, from a simple transfer to the outcome no one wants: a delivery in the back of the ambulance. That’s LifeFlight: changing scenery, complex cases, lots of logistics, and a team that rises to the occasion, always striving for the best outcome.
Healey’s confidence comes through. “Dominique was a champion, very brave.” The goal was clear: move her safely, keep her supported, make sure she never felt alone. Highest level of critical care, this time by road.
Healey calls it the “coolest job in the world.” Where else do you care for very sick, complex patients and fly in a helicopter? She’s been with LifeFlight two plus years after eight in a cardiac ICU. What keeps her here is the mix. “You never know what you’re going to encounter day to day.”
That readiness runs on people and systems. After tough calls, a peer support team checks in. That’s the personal piece. Professionally, every single call is reviewed by a peer and a medical director. Some cases are shared across the organization. You take what went well, fix what didn’t, and push the standard higher.
When it comes to the Grateful Patient Program, Healey simply says, “Fantastic program.” Most days, crews deliver their patient and move to the next trip. They rarely see what happened after. Notes, photos, reunions — those make it real. Seeing Quintal again with her one-year-old daughter was “mind-blowing.”
“It was emotional in the way you try not to be while you’re working. It was just lovely,” she said. “Not only is she grateful for us; we’re grateful for her.”
Bottom line: the Grateful Patient Program fuels crews. It also feeds the learning loop, each experience becomes a case others can learn from, protocols can evolve, and outcomes can improve. If Healey has one line for LifeFlight of Maine, it’s this: when you need us on the worst day, we want to be the ones to help, to get the positive outcome everyone is hoping for.
CAN’T REMEMBER — AND NEVER FORGET. MEET LAUREN.
Lauren Lamberson doesn’t remember the crash. She was five. A seaplane tried to land with the wheels down, flipped, and sank. Her parents and brother escaped. She was trapped. Everyone was trying to get to her. Finally, it was her mom who pulled her out. A doctor on vacation from Colorado started CPR on a boat. No pulse, then a heartbeat.
An ambulance took her to a landing zone. LifeFlight flew her to the Portland Jetport (no helipad at Maine Medical Center then), and another ambulance took her the rest of the way. She woke up. No long-term damage. A fairytale ending delivered by real people and a program built for days like that.
Lamberson doesn’t remember a thing, but she’ll never forget what LifeFlight means. For her sixth birthday and many after, she asked for donations instead of gifts. Although the Grateful Patient Program didn’t exist at the time, Lamberson met her crew several times over the years. Her gratitude still runs deep. “Every time I see the helicopter land, I still get chills and tear up,” she says. That awe fits. LifeFlight of Maine is one of the premier air medical programs in the country.
Today, Lamberson works at the LifeFlight Foundation. She started as an intern and now helps run the Grateful Patient Program — sending the annual mailing, collecting notes and photos, setting up reunions, and offering simple ways to give back or volunteer. The program is about reconnection and healing, letting patients and crews see the ending together.
Lamberson has watched many reunions, including Quintal’s. Happy tears. Powerful words: “Because of you, I’m here.”
She can’t remember the crash, but she’ll never forget the people who carried her through. And now she helps others say thank you.
Rescue starts the story. Gratitude helps finish it. LifeFlight of Maine brings ICU-level care to patients by helicopter, plane, and specialty ground ambulance when minutes matter. The Grateful Patient Program gives people a path to come back: write a note, share a photo, plan a reunion, and say thanks. For crews, it’s a chance to see what came next and why the work matters. For Maine, it’s a reminder that care doesn’t end at the hospital door.
“When you need us on the worst day, we want to be the ones to help—to get the positive outcome everyone hopes for.” — Sarah Healey
“Every time I see the helicopter land, I still get chills and tear up.” — Lauren Lamberson