In a unique collaboration with local veterinarians,\nspecialized animal hospitals, and public safety agencies, Intermountain Life\nFlight, one of the nation\u2019s premier medical transport programs, is launching a\nspecialized operational K9 transport service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This new service will provide transport for operational K9\u2019s\nneeding emergent medical care or who are injured in the line of duty in Utah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representatives from Intermountain Life Flight,\nparticipating veterinarians, and law enforcement and public agency dog handlers\nand officers unveiled the new Intermountain Life Flight Operations K9 Transport\nProgram on Tuesday at a press conference where they talked about how this new\nair transport program aims to save these animals who are injured while serving\nthe public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dog handlers and their animals from more than a dozen public\nsafety agencies joined the announcement. It\u2019s estimated that there are more\nthan 100 operational public safety K9s working in Utah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOperational K9\u2019s are essential to our public service\ncommunity,\u201d said Tammy Bleak, director of clinical operations for Intermountain\nLife Flight. \u201cThese animals are involved in EMS, search and rescue, law\nenforcement, fire rescue, FEMA, narcotics detection, and TSA. Training for one\nof these K9\u2019s can range from $40,000 to $70,000 and take four to five years to\ntrain. When one of these operational K9\u2019s is injured, it is a potential loss to\nthe community and that agency. Until now, there has been no formal process to\nhelp these animals when they need medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Intermountain Life Flight Operations K9 Transport\nProgram is the first air medical program of its kind in Utah \u2013 and only the\nthird air medical program in the nation that is designated to care for and\ntransport public agency service animals for medical care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Intermountain Life Flight will be transporting any\noperational K9 needing emergent medical or surgical services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new program is designed to serve the entire state. If a\nworking K9 is injured (for example, gunshot wound, impalement, or automobile\naccident), the agency or handler can contact Intermountain Life Flight\ndirectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Intermountain Life Flight will transport the K9 and handler\n(human partner) to one of several pre-designated veterinary hospitals. These\nhospitals are advanced specialty\/emergency veterinary hospitals which are open\n24 hours a day, have board-certified surgical and\/or critical care specialist\nveterinarians on staff, and have advanced life-support equipment such as\nventilators and banked blood for transfusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is analogous to human medicine where a severe trauma\nvictim might be diverted to a Level I Trauma hospital rather than transported\nto a closer or smaller medical facility,\u201d according to Laura McLain, DVM,\nveterinary medical director for the Intermountain Life Flight Operations K9\nTransport Program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The designated vet hospitals are: MedVet Salt Lake City; 2)\nMedVet in Sunset; and Mountain West Veterinary Specialists in Layton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese working dogs are awesome,\u201d said Dr. McLain. \u201cThey\nsave lives and serve our community. They can find a survivor buried under six\nfeet of rubble concrete and rebar in a matter of minutes. As a veterinarian, it\nis an honor to care for these dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Law enforcement officers with the West Jordan Police\nDepartment agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The department lost their police K9, Maya, when she was shot\nand killed in 2022 by a fugitive who was being pursued by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a terrific program and vital resource for our\nofficers and their K9s,\u201d said Sgt. Kendall Holt, with the West Jordan City\nPolice Department. “The loss of Maya was an immeasurable pain that we felt\nfrom that day, and we are still trying to recover from it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Box Elder County Sheriff’s Deputy Timothy Kennedy says\nhaving a medical K9 program to provide care for his 20-month-old narcotics dog,\nnamed Elvis, is comforting, in the event he\u2019s ever injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He lives with me, he goes to work with me every day,\nhe eats lunch with me \u2014 he pretty much goes everywhere with me,” said\nKennedy. “Knowing that there is quality medical care available to him like\nthere would be for you and I is a very big thing for us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a unique collaboration with local veterinarians, specialized animal hospitals, and public safety agencies, Intermountain Life Flight, one of the nation\u2019s premier medical transport programs, is launching a specialized operational K9 transport service. This new service will provide transport for operational K9\u2019s needing emergent medical care or who are injured in the line of duty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-utah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Intermountain-Life-Flight-Canine-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27939,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27937\/revisions\/27939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}