KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — On Thursday, UT LIFESTAR hosted an event celebrating the impact it has made in the community over the last 40 years.
The organization airlifted its first patient on October 1, 1984, and since then, it has transported more than 50,000 patients. UT LIFESTAR was founded through the vision of Dr. Robert F. Lash.
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The event was attended by many, including leaders within the company and some of the members from the first flight crew. UT LIFESTAR Director Matthew Owens shared with 6 News how the organization has changed East Tennessee’s approach to medical care.
“[In] 1984, the concept of air medical operations was really pretty unheard of. There were a few programs that predate that across the country, but not very many. It was mostly reliant on military support for those occasions when you needed to pull someone out of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by helicopter,” Owens said. “And so Dr. Lash in 1984, leading up to 1984, actually had the idea to bring a program like that to UT Medical Center and have it served in the civilian capacity, and that was really where this program evolved from.”