Lifeflight Panama Abandons Their Efforts in Panama

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Unfortunately, the Lifeflight operation, which was going to be a helicopter transport medical evacuation service in the Republic of Panama, has abandoned their efforts to obtain permissions to operate. I learned months ago they were having serious problems obtaining required permits and permissions. I called and spoke directly to the primary person behind Lifeflight, Jim Thompson. I had met Jim almost a year prior when they asked for a meeting to explain their services, which I attended together with Hunter Schultz who was working for them at the time. To put a long story in a nutshell, basically powerful Panamanian and foreign businessmen who are already operating in the aviation business recognized the validity of Lifeflight's business model, that the service was needed in Panama, and that eventually Lifeflight would probably succeed resoundingly. Therefore, those same people intervened with the Panamanian government, specifically the Civil Aeronautics Administration, to block Lifeflight's requests for permits to operate, in effect cutting the legs out from under their operation. The AAC refused to issue Lifeflight the permits required to fly, transport patients, and charge for the service. They could fly, but not charge. And although the people who did this had done absolutely nothing to start a competing medical evacuation business, they simply wanted to keep the field clean should they decide launch a similar service in the future. Basically, Lifeflight was sabotaged. (more)

As Usual, Ornstein is Completely Clueless: Okke Ornstein heard Lifeflight was shut down so in typical fashion he jumped up and down with glee, giggling like a schoolgirl. His "story" is so (typically) wrong that anyone who reads his crap and believes a word of it deserves what they get. Hunter Shultz, who worked to help establish Lifeflight initially responded to the Ornstein article, line by line:

• Hunter Schultz Writes:
  
  
• Sadly, they folded operations at the end of September. Their president, Jim Thomson, left a few weeks prior to that.
  
  
• The linked article, if I can call it that, says that the helicopter did not exist! Twice so it is no mistake. Even in the update he persists with this fiction and I quote, "That is the sort of logic one may expect from a helicopter ambulance service without a helicopter, we presume."
  
  
• Folks, it landed last March at Albrook over the Semana Santa holidays. Ask Dr. Alberto Bissot of Hospital Del Nino if he imagined it when he saw it for the first time. Or some of the many others who came out to see it at the hangar in April later in Coronado when it visited there.
  
  
• I know far more about LifeFlight than this guy. I was there. From almost the beginning. Let's blow this nonsense apart -- point-by-point.
  
  
• "A bunch of helicopter addicts who said they were going to start an air ambulance service in Panama." Fact: He does not know the owners. I do. They were two British guys and one Swiss guy and all three were helicopter pilots and serious about the business as a heart attack. I guess this makes them addicts? So, from the get go, his so called article is pure fiction.
  
  
• "Well, the only thing they started was a scheme to collect membership fees. And now they have disappeared. Gone. Check that website: "LIFEFLIGHT® is no longer operating in Panama." No longer? They were NEVER operating in Panama!" Fact: I invite you all to drop by their former offices (remodeled to the tune of about $30,000) at Albrook Plaza. Their hangar at Albrook is up for sale but it may sold by now. Does this sound a bit different than the picture he paints? Go ahead, drive by and see for yourself. I think I still have pictures of the remodeling in progress if you want to see them. Can he support ANY aspect of his story? I already know the answer to this one. It did limited flights for free to the government and for Hospital del Nino. You can ask the AAC if they authorized their missions. So, "NEVER" is misleading, like the entire article.
  
  
• "First they owned a helicopter ambulance service without owning a helicopter. Then they said they were going to buy a helicopter." Fact: Like any business executive, you plan, you research, you make a decision, and you invest. They did. Spent over one large on a Bell 206 Longranger III with a LifePort medical system.
  
  
• "Then a consultant for them told us that the helicopter they were going to buy sucked big time. It would have to hop from gas station to gas station when flying you to a Panama City hospital with a heart attack." Fact: That "consultant" was misrepresenting himself to the owners. Sadly for him, and lucky for LifeFlight, I knew the person at the US Embassy he called to get basic facts he should have already known. He said he was part of LifeFlight when he was not. The consultant was not very happy with the kiss off and proceded to attack the company through other means including spreading lies about the helicopter's capabilities. The author of this hitjob loved it and swallowed it hook, line, and sinker -- again without checking the facts.
  
  
• "They had no medical staff." Fact: I did the first interview of their fine medical director. Dr. Javier is a great guy and I know some of you met him. I also met the chief pilot before the president did. Thousands of flight hours. Mostly doing EMS work. He flew here in Panama for the US Army. He was working for the largest air ambulance company in the USA. They used 85, repeat that, 85, of the same aircraft LifeFlight bought.
  
  
• "It was all criminal amateurism, which of course didn't stop them from collecting membership fees to get the "cash flow" to get things going." Fact: The ignorance of his statement is monumental. The amount of capital "to get things going" amounts to over a million dollars. The helicopter along cost that much alone. They provided that capital putting their money at risk. Not one dime of customer money was used for operations. It couldn't be per their attorney until they were operational. More on the money thing in a bit.
  
  
• "They even tried an MLM affiliate downline bullshit scheme! Get in on the ground floor before take-off!" Fact: Really, this is just plain stupid and very telling of the author's limited knowledge of the real world. Follow along. The difference between the two is dramatic: MLM means multiple level marketing involving multiple levels of people. Affiliate programs like the LifeFlight version was exactly the same as Amazon.com. By the way, I know the author of that news release linked on his post. You see, it was me. I am also somewhat knowledgeable about the Internet and affiliate marketing. Using his version of reality, he has just called Amazon.com an MLM company! Amazing isn't it? I will make this easier as I do know how to hyperlink stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing Now Wiki may not be admissible in court but for basics of understanding something, it ain't bad. The descriptions are spot on in this case. MLM at it's worst requires multiple layers of people. MLM scams are fairly simple to identify -- They make a bigger deal out of the downline than the product itself. Sell the downline and not the product is not a business and there is your answer. A legit business opportunity had better be in selling the product or service and NOT the downline. Now about LifeFlight's affiliate program... It had no downline and no incentive to get in on the ground floor! Is this picture getting clearer now? I thought so.
  
  
• "Oh, and they sold "landing kits". Your own helipad for a heli that doesn't exist! How many suckers have fallen for this nonsense, we wonder?" Fact: See, there is that heli doesn't exist thing again. No mistake about that. No typo here. The helicopter did not exist. The landing kits were put together so that communities could get together and get what they needed for safe EMS operations rather than facing the rather tough task of trying to do it on their own. Reasonable people see the logic in preventing accidents. Making a clear landing spot easy to see and getting a community on the same page so their are no screwups when a life flight is needed is just good old common sense. Life flights are a high pressure situation. Mistakes are costly and sometimes deadly. I am on record on another group regarding this aspect and other facts about LifeFlight. The Altos del Maria forum I think. Do a search about LifeFlight there and you will find it.
  
  
• "Needless to say: Our resident scam pimp Don Winner was involved promoting them together with his drinking buddies who use names like "Panama Bob". How many times do we have to say this? If the Wanker is involved: hand on your wallet and run!" Fact: Don met with the owners and with me as well. I was there for both meetings. I know how some people here feel that anything he touches is somehow tainted. Well, he never owned a part of LifeFlight. He simply liked what he heard and got answers to his questions. He supported the idea and said so. Common sense. As far as I know, Don never received a penny from LifeFlight. He may have after I left in April but I do not know about that. This common sense shared by many others in the community including the premier doctors in Panama is stupid? You decide on that call.
  
  
• Consider this fact as well: I was the one who got Hospital Del Nino and LifeFlight together in the first place. Dr. Bissot and I go back a bit. He told me of the kids who were dying everyday because they could not get to the hospital for treatment. LifeFlight would have changed that and indeed they were semi-operational in that they did perform actual medical flights for patients with the approval of the AAC and the government. Training missions as well. A portion of every subscription went to funding those flights. I know. I changed the subscription plan to something more affordable for as many Panamanians as posible. No insurance required. Just one straight fee for a year's membership for a family up to five people. $204 if I recall. A bargain yet a few thought it was too much because one person paid the same as five. Oh well. I couldn't please everyone I guess.
  
  
• I know a few of you saw the helicopter (that didn't exist) in Coronado and out west when they did a few roadshows to see the machine and meet their people.
  
  
• Now the personal attacks get even worse:
  
  
• "UPDATE: This just keeps getting funnier. Lee Zeltzer of the Boquete Guide is one of the few who advocated this wacky scheme, apparently believing that this helicopter could fly to Boquete, which it could not!" Fact: Other than weather conditions, there is no reason LifeFlight's helicopter could not operate in Boquete. If LifeFlight was arriving from Panama City, that was not a problem since the fuel load would be much lighter after the trip and lifting patients would not be a problem. Operationally, the aircraft would refuel at David and return to PC. See? There are logical answers if one actually takes time to research or ask questions. The key is that we knew this stuff because we asked good questions of real pilots instead of anonymous sources pretending to be something they are not.
  
  
• "Anyway, he is all sad and grieving now, and quotes one of the anonymous principals - always a bad sign - of the flying funeral squad on his website: "I have been told all member funds have been refunded and no checks were ever cashed". Ah. Funds that were never cashed have been refunded. That is the sort of logic one may expect from a helicopter ambulance service without a helicopter, we presume?" Fact: Some payments were in cash. Some were checks, and other payments were credit card vouchers. ALL THE MONEY WAS RETURNED. Checks were not cashed per their attorney's advice. No one lost a dime on them. You all know for sure that would have come out a lot sooner than now. I know the "not so anonymous" principals. I met with the remaining two after they folded. They told me the same thing and I should think that anyone who did not get a refund will come to light very quickly after my post here. Damn facts again...
  
  
• You might ask Lee for yourselves about his experience when his wife was terribly ill and needed transport to Panama City. He knows from first-hand experience what this type of service means to this country and we should try to support it instead of shooting bullets at first. You may be pleased to hear that there is another helicopter EMS service in the process of getting their certification. I hope they succeed and assuming their business model is correct, and they are following CAMPTS standards like LifeFlight did, it will be worth a good hard look.
  
  
• There is far more that I can share. I also know why some people were put on the "do not talk to" list, which included the author of this hitjob.
  
  
• So now you know the far more of the story and you can fact check him for yourselves. It should also make you wonder, don't you think?
  
  
• Speaking for myself, and I am certain for other former LifeFlight people, I take personal offense at these lies, which they are. Probably libelous as well since they are being presented as news and not gossip. If I get a chance tonight, I will post some snapshots of the office assuming I still have them. You know. For the helicopter that didn't exist and was never seen in Panama though there were pictures of them landing with a patient at the Miramar's landing pad...
  
  
• Regards, Hunter

Unfortunately, He's Still Given An Audience: Amazingly enough, the "moderators" on the Panama Forum Yahoo! email group still allow this moron Ornstein unlimited access to post his slanderous lies about anyone and anything positive in Panama. The fact that powerful people in Panama with money and influence in the Panamanian government were capable of shutting down the Lifeflight effort does not bode well for Panama, simply on the basis of judicial security. The way it's supposed to work is - the government presents you with a list of requirements in order to obtain a permit to operate a business, and if you meet those requirements then you can proceed forward. The guys behind Lifeflight actually and truly believed in what they were doing and they invested millions of dollars of their own money to purchase, equip, and deliver a helicopter capable of providing the service as advertised. Thanks to the outright greed of a few individuals, their efforts failed.

I Hope They Sue Him: Once again, Ornstein proves his absolute lack of value as a "reporter" or "journalist." He had no idea about what really happened to the company and why their efforts failed. He talked to one person who had a conflicting interest, and ran with a snippet of a rumor. In fact there was never any intent or effort to steal a dime from anyone. The only people who lost money on this venture were the responsible people who were backing it, and the money they lost was their own. All funds received from potential clients was refunded. Every dime. I challenge anyone, and I mean anyone, to prove they these people stole a nickle from them. In fact, they paid every bill, and absorbed their losses themselves. This "article" posted by Ornstein is nothing short of libel and slander, and I hope they sue him for it. Nothing new here really, that's what this moron does. In fact, the primary people behind Lifeflight have moved and are now on to bigger and better things. They were honest people, hardworking, bright, intelligent, and they actually believed in what they were doing. Thanks to influence peddling and corrupt government officials they have now departed Panama, and what are we with? Ornstein, the residue in the bottom of the bowl, gleefully celebrating their failure.

Here's The Helicopter: This photo was taken on 10 June 2008, and was sent to me together with this press release from the company:

• First LifeFlight… On June 10th, 2008, "LifeFlight 1", flown by Pilot Joseph Rios, accompanied by Senior Flight Doctor Dr. Javier Bernard and Senior Rescue Specialist Danilo Bernal, made it’s first Life Saving Flight in the Republic of Panama. The not for profit flight, a “mission of mercy”, was carried out, so that the patient could be transported immediately, to Panama Cities' Centro Patilla Hospital, for a life-saving procedure. The patient, Larry English, a 63 year old volunteer from the United States of America, was carrying out missionary work on behalf of Panama Missions. The missionary, had suffered a heart attack, and was taken to the Chicho Fabrega Hospital in Santiago, where he was stabilized. It was determined that the patient needed to be transport to a Hospital in Panama City for a life-saving procedure immediately, and time was critical. The only other alternative to LifeFlight, was to send a Ground Ambulance from Panama City, a round trip of approximately 7 hours. "LifeFlight 1" was able to reduce this time to 2 hours, departing from Albrook, Airport to Santiago (1 hour) and then returning, Santiago to the Mirimar Hotel Heli-Pad, where the remainder of the transport was completed by a Ground Ambulance. LifeFlight is currently awaiting completion of its operational paperwork."

That's The Real Deal: This is another perfect example of why you all read www.panama-guide.com, because this is where you get the truth and facts. With regards to this story, as usual, Okke Ornstein is totally clueless and ignorant of the actual events surrounding any particular situation. I mean, he missed the truth at every opportunity. The helicopter did exist. No one lost a dime (except for the primary investors, who lost their own money.) The company was forced to abandon their efforts due to insider influence peddling and governmental corruption. In fact the real story here for the long term actually relates more with Judicial Security for large investors who would try to establish legitimate business operations here. Ornstein completely missed the real deal on all counts. As usual, best ignored.

So, If You Get Sick or Injured: If there was no influence peddling going on in the AAC then Lifeflight would have been totally operational by now. If you lived in Boquete or Bocas del Toro and you had a heart attack or something you would have been in a first class medical facility quickly, thanks to Lifeflight. Now, thanks to corrupt government officials, you're right back where you started. None of this makes me happy in any way. The failure of Lifeflight reflects negatively on Panama as a whole. It's a sad failure of an operation that should have at least been given a fair chance to make a run at it. As it was, they never got off the ground. Damn shame, really...

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.