Novant Health’s AirLink marks 25 years of lifesaving service

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — For 25 years, Novant Health’s AirLink has helped critically ill and injured patients get the specialized medical care they need, often when every second counts.

Behind each flight is a team of dedicated medical professionals working to make those lifesaving missions possible. Through its AirLink air medical transport service and VitaLink critical care ground transport team, Novant Health provides around-the-clock emergency medical services to patients across the Cape Fear region.

“The biggest thing that the helicopter brings to the table is speed, transport speed,” said VitaLink critical care paramedic Dennis Thacker.

Thacker knows firsthand how important that speed can be. He spent 24 years as a critical care paramedic with AirLink, which serves as a flying emergency room and brings critically ill and injured patients to hospitals equipped to provide highly specialized care.

“It provides rapid transport for them to get from that point A to this point B,” said Thacker.

AirLink played a role in saving the life of Brunswick County firefighter Glenn Hart, who was airlifted in 2023 after suffering a massive heart attack.

For Hart, the experience was especially personal. After witnessing dozens of emergency calls throughout his firefighting career, he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of the kind of response he had seen so many times before.

“To see somebody else lying there, even though I had been on fifty or sixty [calls]. That one was just real odd when you go back, and you look at it, and you think, ‘that’s you, that’s you,’” said Hart in 2023.

While AirLink provides critical care by air, VitaLink delivers the same high level of medical care through ground transportation.

Thacker began his career in emergency medical services in 1981 and joined VitaLink in 1998. He later joined AirLink’s original flight crew and participated in the service’s first patient transport—a cardiac emergency originating in Whiteville.

“I actually got the really good luck of actually doing the first patient transport with the helicopter service here, which was pretty awesome. It was a pretty exciting time,” said Thacker.

That first flight marked the beginning of a long career dedicated to helping patients get the care they need, regardless of the circumstances.

For Thacker, the mission has always been about more than simply getting patients from one place to another.

“I approach them all the same. I want to meet their needs. I want them to feel safe. And I want them to feel happy, if at all possible, while I’m trying to take care of them,” said Thacker.

Today, Novant Health’s AirLink and VitaLink teams continue that mission, providing critical care transport services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to communities throughout the Cape Fear region.