Forty years ago, UW Health Med Flight answered its very first call — a flight to Adams-Friendship on April 23, 1985, that would set the tone for decades of critical care in the air. Today, the program is celebrating an extraordinary milestone: 40 years of service and more than 50,000 patients served across Wisconsin and neighboring states.
Unlike most physicians who spend their careers within the walls of hospitals and clinics, a select group at UW Health takes to the skies. Two dozen attending-level emergency physicians form the heart of Med Flight’s team, making it the only program in the nation to ensure a board-certified or -eligible emergency physician is on board every flight.
“We truly do bring critical care to the bedside, no matter where that bedside happens to be,” said Dr. Michael Abernethy, one of Med Flight’s longest-serving physicians, who first took to the air with the team in 1992. “I trained long and hard to take care of very sick patients in very austere environments — and that’s what I do best.”
Med Flight crews often respond to emergencies in rural communities, providing lifesaving interventions that smaller hospitals may not have the resources to deliver. For many, it’s a mission that blends medicine, service, and aviation into a singular calling.
“It’s a very different mindset out in the field or at a rural hospital than it is here at a university hospital,” said Dr. Ryan Wubben, who has been with Med Flight for over 20 years. “You have to be resourceful. You’re it.”
For Wubben, the job also represents a personal passion. Growing up with an interest in aviation, he found in Med Flight a perfect blend of his two worlds: flying and medicine.
Med Flight’s success over four decades is not something its physicians take for granted. Programs come and go, Abernethy noted, but the strength of Med Flight has been its adaptability, its clinical rigor, and its unwavering commitment to the communities it serves.
“To make it 40 years — and to not just survive but keep growing — says a lot about the people behind it,” he said.
As UW Health Med Flight marks this milestone, its mission remains the same as it was in 1985: bringing critical care wherever it’s needed, one flight at a time.
This story was adapted from an original interview by Ch. 3 News in Madison.