On Feb. 20, the Keys Weekly Newspapers received a phone call from Dolphin Research Center co-founder Armando “Mandy” Rodriguez with a not-so-everyday request about Sheriff Rick Ramsay.
“I want to take a photo hugging that man,” Rodriguez said.
Of course, we at the Weekly are more than happy to support our law enforcement here in the Keys. But just to be on the safe side, we asked for the backstory behind Rodriguez’s comment, which he gladly offered:
On Feb. 17, just one day after having a heart monitor installed for atrial fibrillation, Rodriguez was on the way to pick up his grandchildren when he got a call from the teams monitoring his device.
“Get to the emergency room, now. Your heart just stopped,” he recalled.
With his family in tow, Rodriguez headed for Fishermen’s Community Hospital, where the decision was quickly made to fly him via Trauma Star to Miami’s Baptist Hospital.
“It’s an interesting feeling when the Trauma Star doors close and you see your family standing on the tarmac, and you wonder if it’s the last time you’ll see them,” he told the Weekly.
Thanks to a flight lasting just 26 minutes from helicopter door closure to touchdown in Miami, Rodriguez’s heart eventually stabilized after a stay in the hospital’s “code room.”
Now safely back home, stable and evaluating options for further procedures, he had endless praise for the air ambulance program and Baptist medical teams that saved him. So when our phone rang, the Weekly was more than happy to accommodate his request for a photo shoot to thank all involved in the life-altering effort.
“It was the best care I’ve ever had, both from the people up there and down here,” he said. “Citizens of Monroe County should count our blessings to have this service, because without it, a lot of us wouldn’t be here,” he said. “Anybody that has questions about how much the service costs, turn around and look at your family and ask yourself: How much are they worth?”
Rodriguez’s story comes at a particularly fitting time for both Trauma Star and Fishermen’s Community Hospital in Marathon.
On March 22, the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners approved a $52 million purchase of three new air ambulances for the Trauma Star program. The three Sikorski S76s currently used by the program are more than 20 years old – the average life expectancy is 25 – and are no longer manufactured, making repairs difficult.
The larger, more powerful Leonardo AW139 craft that will replace them will allow for greater speed, range and lift, and will allow two adult passengers to fly in the ambulances as well as the pilots and medical staff. The new helicopters will be charged with continuing the legacy of one of the busiest air ambulance programs in the country as they fly nearly 1,400 flights each year.
Less than a month after Rodriguez’s flight, the Marathon City Council voted 3-2 to renew the Middle Keys Health Care Municipal Services Taxing Unit (MSTU) in support of uninsured and indigent care at Fishermen’s Community Hospital.
