(WWJ) It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s PANDA one!

In order to improve emergency response times and to provide intensive care services in remote areas for pediatric patients, Children’s Hospital of Michigan has added PANDA One (Pediatric and Neonatal Dedicated Ambulance) to Michigan’s only pediatric and neonatal ambulance service and team.

The helicopter, based out of Flint’s Bishop Airport, will make it possible for the Children’s Hospital to assist patients from Genesee, Saginaw counties, and the Thumb region more quickly. The aircraft is joining the already existing decades-old, ground-based PANDA One Ambulance service which provides transportation care for critically ill children and neonates from referring hospitals and physician offices all over the state.

Like the PANDA One ambulance, the PANDA One helicopter, essential a mobile ICU, will be fully equipped with advanced pediatric and neonatal life support technologies and includes a team of specially trained nurses and respiratory therapists.

Robert Schultz, a transport nurse said about the helicopter, “We can go farther, faster, and we can shorten the out-of-hospital time which is the critical time between hospital A and the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.”