By Ken Hower

Considering Medical Flight Membership?


RTF Members, and those considering their “Helo-Insurance”  membership.

As a preface, I just want to say anytime I mention “Helo-Insurance” it is in reference to AirMedCare Network which was formally Reach, which was formally Calstar….I’m sure you will understand…

When I initially purchased my Helo-Insurance it was under the idea that I am often in far out, hard to reach areas, where my only method of communications is either Ham Radio or a Messenger that may take hours to deliver a message via cell phone. It was pretty obvious that if I were to become injured in one of these remote places, whether it was my fault or not I would need to make sure that once physically recovered I wouldn’t be financially injured in the process. Mentally I sold myself with the secondary fact that my 14-year-old son was racing motorcycle enduro/Hare Scrambles often in remote locations and since I was buying coverage for my entire family and my son was a bit high risk as well it really was making sense…After making the purchase I proudly explained to my wife how proud of me she should be for being a “Responsible Husband & Father” and how she was now covered if she was in a car accident or if our daughter fell off of her horse and broke her leg. Little do we know the hand that fate deals us…..

Wednesday, Jan 23 2019 at close to 3pm I initially received the call from my wife that there had been an accident at the equestrian center my daughter was at in Loomis. Our daughter’s trainer had eyes away dealing with another horse for a minute and heard a ruckus behind her. When she turned around she found the cause of ruckus, my daughter was on the ground after receiving a kick from a horse…My wife relayed as much information as she could at the time and told me she was being transported to Sutter Roseville via Ambulance…My wife was not on scene, only relaying secondary information that when our daughter was found, she was unconscious but waking to consciousness, with fluid coming from her ears, it was talked about but not confirmed at this time whether it was spinal or brain fluid, but either way that was the longest most questionable drive to Roseville I have ever had…Upon arriving at SRMC minutes after my daughter arrived, my wife was not admitted in as my daughter was immediately sent for CT Scans…once the CT scans were done we were allowed in and updated. Our Daughter had extreme head trauma, including an obvious concussion. She had Basial Skull fractures from ear to ear. There was obvious internal brain hemorrhaging on one side as seen so far. For those as far into head trauma as me, there was no visible Vertical or Horizontal shift. There was expected swelling and hemorrhaging to come from the opposite side soon. The recommendation was that we were lucky to have a ct scan this early in the game, but the doctor could not predict if the hemorrhaging would get better or worse at this time, nor how the swelling would affect it. His recommendation was to get my daughter to UC Davis as soon as possible as they were better equipped to handle this type of trauma if it were to start to swell or hemorrhage further. He was instructing his team to prep to drill an ICP (Intracranial Pressure monitor) if needed as they waited and planned to continue CT scanning as needed in 15 minute intervals to monitor swelling until we had a transport plan……He mentioned that the Ambulance service was reporting an expected 45 minute drive into UCDavis even going code 3 at this time of the day, and he was going to explore what other options were available including a Helicopter if needed, and that was my in…..I said…I’m a “Calstar” member…errr a ..”Reach” member…he still gave me a weird eye, I told him….just call the Helo in Auburn I have the extra insurance for it…..he smiled, shook his head and said “Got it” then left the room..2 minutes later he came back in the room, smiling and said, yep helicopter is available, they will be here in less then 3 minutes, we are prepping for transport now, flight time is now 7 minutes in total to UCDavis.

I would like to stop and reiterate that at this time with everything that is happening, brain swelling is being monitored in 15-minute intervals in these first hours by CT Scans. And instead of skipping 3 maybe 4 scans during these critical hours for ambulance transport, having the additional “Helo-insurance” enabled the medical professionals to do exactly what they do best, and because of that my daughter was transported timely in between scans from one great hospital to another. To end the story quickly, After spending a week in ICU at UC Davis because of this injury…My Daughter has made a full recovery and in less then 100 days after the accident entered her next barrel race.  03/29/19 was her first time back on a horse in the arena…

If I could highlight anything about this story, it would be that I purchased this insurance for the “unexpected” and I run a very “expected” life (most of the time), Additionally, I carry good medical insurance. I know for a fact, initial transport to the hospital would be covered if needed by Helicopter to the hospital at like 90% from my existing medical insurance…It was very “unexpected” to have to transport my daughter of all people from one great hospital to another hospital I never thought about interhospital transport when I bought this insurance….nor how telling a trauma doctor “I have the extra insurance call the Helo from Auburn” would help.

RTF Code Member/AirmedCare Member For Life

-The Joiner Family.

To become a member, enroll at https://www.amcnrep.com/

Use the RTF code: 11113-CA-BUS


The annual cost for your entire household is: $65

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