'Just for Kids' pilot details personal connection to Norton Children's transport team

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Soaring high above Louisville's skyline, the brightly colored Norton Children's Just for Kids helicopter sticks out against the blue sky.

The helicopter is part of the specialized team based at Bowman Field, who recently set a record for the most children transported in a single month. 

The team's lead pilot, Bradley Rice, is responsible for taking the bird thousands of feet above the ground to help save children's lives from all over the country. 

"First thing I do is get in in the morning, talk to the off going pilot and find out what's been going on in the night and what the status of the helicopter is," he said. 

Rice also looks over weather in the area and any potential destinations to determine if taking the helicopter up is safe. Regardless of a patient's status, Rice says ultimately the trip has to be safe for them to take or else he's putting everyone else's lives at risk. 

"I have to be able to get myself and my team to the patient and then back home at the end of the flight. That consideration for me as a pilot comes first: the safety of the crew and the outcome of the flight," he said. "It's difficult to separate, but after doing it for quite some time you realize every flight has to have a safety component to it."

According to the pilot, the team doesn't conduct any scene flights and they, "don't land on interstates and pick anybody up." Instead, their transports involve transporting a patient from one hospital to another.

"There's no where in the state we don't go. We also go up into southern Indiana, we've been to Tennessee and actually last month we went to Alabama," Rice said. 

Rice wanted to be a pilot his entire life and got his start flying in the military through the Army National Guard. He later became an EMS pilot in 2007 before eventually joining Just for Kids.

"To do something I love to do every day is incredible. The helicopter is pretty specialized. EMS is a very interesting business to be in regardless," the pilot said. 

Rice and the team fly an average of 40 flights per month at an estimated 120 mph.  In September, the team broke the average with 67 flights.

Rice said the flights "are all important in their own way."

"The ride back home when the sun's coming up is always a good ride," he added. 

The trips for the Louisville native also hit close to home. 

"Back in 2000, my son was transported here locally down to the children's hospital for life-saving surgery," he said. "They found out the day he was born that he had a diaphragmatic hernia." 

A diaphragmatic hernia is a birth defect where there is a whole in the diaphragm, the large muscle separating the chest from the abdomen. If unclosed, part of of the abdomen (such as lungs, liver, and intestines) could move into the chest and impact the development of the lungs. 

"It's a horrible feeling," he recalled. "So I understand what some of the parents are going through."

Rice's son's surgery was a success and the pilot is thankful to help other families in their times of need. 

"When we transport someone, I've actually been in their shoes so I think it helps me do my job a little bit with compassion," he said. 

Rice still remembers "the personalized care and attention" his son received. He said it helped make a "very traumatic time" for his family a little easier.

"It's a little loop closure and it's kind of neat to know I'm a good part of somebody's worst day," he said. "It's a little bittersweet at times to know that when I get called, it is somebody's worst day. But, there's also being one of the helpers. That's the part that makes it easier is knowing you are one of the helpers and you're bringing the helpers with you. It feels really good to be able to be a part of that team."

Rice described being a part of Norton Children's Just for Kids Transport Team as "around the coffee pot and around the coffee table." He said their comradery is what helps them be more efficient when duty calls. 

"It's absolutely important. We are a team from the time we get up to the time we land back over here. Everybody has a very invested part of making that trip a success," he said. 

Inside the helicopter, crews pack all the same equipment found in a neonatal or pediatric ICU.

The staff are all trained to do the same procedures a physician could do inside a hospital, like putting in a chest tube or interosseous line, while in the air or in the back of an ambulance. 

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