KENNEBUNK — When care is needed very, very quickly and when every minute counts, paramedics on the ground often request help from LifeFlight of Maine.

The nonprofit service maintains two helicopters – one based in Bangor and another in Lewiston – and within the next several months plan to have a third in the air, based in southern Maine.

“We’d like to do it before next summer,” said Tom Judge, executive director of LifeFlight of Maine and the LifeFlight Foundation. He said a final decision as to exactly where the helicopter will be based is not in place, but said Thursday it will be in York County.

The helicopters fly into all corners of Maine and the border communities in New Hampshire, with a crew of three, including a nurse, a paramedic and a pilot, answering the call when the injuries are severe and time is of the essence. LifeFlight also uses a fixed wing aircraft, which can fly in some weather conditions when a helicopter can’t, and has a longer range.

Judge spent time with the Kennebunk Rotary Club Thursday, talking about the program and why it needs to expand.

Mostly, it is because of the number of flights needed and the size of the state. In fiscal year 2015, 1,637 patients from 433 Maine municipalities were transported quickly to hospitals, usually to the larger trauma centers, like Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston or Maine Medical Center in Portland, or farther afield – to hospitals in Boston and beyond.

LifeFlight Foundation Communications Director Melissa Arndt said a helicopter based in York County would fly patients from throughout the state, just as the two based in Lewiston and Bangor currently do.

The LifeFlight Foundation is looking to raise about $6 million for a new helicopter, and has slightly more than $5 million in pledges, Judge told the Kennebunk Rotary Club, leaving a gap of about $1 million for that portion of the project.

Judge told stories of lives that had been saved because a helicopter was able to fly and its crew was able to provide care.

About six months after her son was involved in a pick-up truck crash in Lucerne, about 15 miles from Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, a mother wrote a to LifeFlight, thanking the crew for their care. EMMC wasn’t very far away, but the young man was trapped inside the vehicle and had very severe injuries, including head trauma.

“He didn’t have any time left,” Judge told the Rotary Club.

But as it turned out, there was some time – enough to get the young man into a helicopter and to EMMC.

Similarly, a woman about to give birth on one of the Maine islands was in major medical trouble and it just happened there was a helicopter and crew on the island that day, providing some training. There wasn’t enough time to make the 27-minute flight to Maine Medical Center or the 22- minute flight to EMMC, but it was a five-minute flight to Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport, and they made it. LifeFlight still receives photos of the now 11-year-old girl from the mother every year – two lives were saved that day.

At the time Judge was speaking to Kennebunk Rotary Club members on Thursday, both helicopters were in the air – one was in Portland headed to northern

Maine, while the other was in Sanford, headed for Boston.

Flights are paid for through patients’ private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. About 20 percent of clients are uninsured, Judge said.

In the other Maine locations, the staff assigned to a flight work for a hospital when they’re not in the air, with the arrangement that they’re able to leave on a moment’s notice. Judge said ideally that model would continue in a York County location.

Two municipal fire and rescue chiefs say a helicopter based in York County would be a boon to the rescue system.

“I think it’s certainly a service that the area needs,” said Kennebunk Fire Chief Jeff Rowe. “It is vital. They bring a level of service most of the local agencies can’t provide on their own.”

Sanford Fire Chief Steve Benotti agreed. He said there have been times where trauma patients have been taken to the hospital by ground ambulance because a helicopter just hasn’t been available in close proximity.

“The closest they can get a bird to Sanford the better off we are,” said Benotti.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.