We understand why people in the neighborhood where the new Marquette General Hospital air ambulance helicopter will land and take off aren’t thrilled about the intrusion that this will mean to their lives.

Helicopters create a loud and unique noise and because you can never predict when they will be taking off and landing, it certainly could make for a major inconvenience if they are coming and going in the middle of the night.

What also needs to be considered in this process, though, has to be the value that having helicopter service for emergency care means to the people that live in this region. In emergencies there is something called the golden hour.

The golden hour refers to the importance of getting critical patients to the hospital or necessary medical treatment in the most expedient manner possible. Being transported in a helicopter instead of a land ambulance could clearly be the difference between life and death.

Consider a terrible car accident on the Seney stretch. The victims need to get to the Level 2 trauma center at MGH as soon as possible. The trip from the Seney stretch to MGH could take 1 to 1 1/2 hours by land ambulance. By helicopter this flight would probably take between 30 and 40 minutes. The time saving of over an hour could be the difference maker between someone living or dying.

The inconvenience for the people who currently live near MGH is a temporary situation because MGH will be building a new hospital in the future.

When a new location is chosen, there may be people in the new area concerned about a heliport in their neighborhood as well. We hope that citizens in our area realize that we are fortunate to have this new service available to us. We also hope they weigh the benefit versus inconvenience this new service will provide.

We believe that we are fortunate to have this new medical air ambulance helicopter service. We can’t think of anything that could be more important to our area than a new service that can actually help to save someone’s life.

We are pleased that MGH is conducting meetings with the public to educate them on the impact that the new service will provide. We believe that when all the details are explained properly, MGH will realize strong support for the addition of this new service to our region.