Original subtitles

When you sit masculinity down to its core, it's about putting others before

yourself.

It's about being capable to carry others when they can't carry themselves.

And when you're at your lowest, there's one kind of everyday hero that will

carry you high above the rest.

What's more heroic, paramedic or helicopter pilot?

Straight question, it's both.

After a 16 -hour drive, we made it to Corpus Christi, Texas.

And today we're going to spend some time with Halo Flight Team.

Non -profit, volunteer -founded air ambulance.

In translation, they fly cool helicopters and rescue people.

Today they are going to give me some hands -on experience being a helicopter

paramedic so that I can learn how a real man supports people in need.

All right, it's going to get awkward. I'm sorry.

Hello. Hey, how are you? Travis Patterson. Nice to meet you. Very nice

you. This is Travis Patterson, CEO of Halo Flight.

He was a real -life hero even before he joined the company.

Did you fly with the president?

I did, yes. I was a presidential helicopter pilot from 2016 to 2020.

A true national hero.

You were flying with the president, and now you rescue people.

Yeah. A lot of veterans, I think, struggle.

When they leave the service, this was a purpose for me. This is something I

could get behind, something that's a community service, an organization

full of great people.

If we can talk about men's purpose, because nowadays I think there's a lot

especially younger men who don't have purpose whatsoever.

I've always been a believer in public service. I think if you have the

mentally and physically to serve your community, you should. It doesn't have

be putting your life at risk in the military. It could just be a couple

the weekend helping out a local.

or helping out your church or whatever it is. There are ways to find purpose in

smaller areas that I think will help people build the larger purposes.

This is amazing. I'm very, very excited about this job opportunity.

We're definitely going to put you through the ringer today and tomorrow.

should get a good idea of what our paramedics and our nurses go through.

petrified of flying.

Don't worry.

Helicopters have a weird reputation for some reason.

So when do I get to fly the helicopter?

We'd love to have you start tomorrow.

Okay. Welcome to the team.

With the job interview out of the way, I was ready to go and fly some

helicopters.

Let's do it.

Time to get some medical training from two of the best paramedics in the

business. This is Randy Ensley and Ryan Pelley. Randy is Halo Flight's chief

medical officer, and Ryan is their critical care educator.

They're going to teach me how to do life -saving medical procedures so I don't

accidentally kill my first patient. Are you saying Pavo?

Pavo. Yeah. Pavo. Yeah. Perfect.

If you're going to be a flight medic with us, one of the most important

that you have to know is how do you assess a patient? Okay. And there is a

process in which we go through, and it's called the ABCs. It's as simple as

that. A is going to stand for airway. B is going to be breathing.

Airway breathing.

And C is going to be circulating.

sometimes it's as simple as hey gregory can you talk to me and he talks to you

check mark you got an airway greg greg no no

not there at the same time you're looking at that airway you can assess

breathing listening for air and you're looking for movement okay okay if you

don't have either one of those things maybe pull the jaw for it a little bit

sometimes people just need a little help Check here for pulse. You can check

here for pulse.

Radial pulse, right? Right in between these two bones right here.

Every patient is just going to get that simple assessment.

Airway, breathing, circulation. And if you don't have any of those things,

CPR, right?

What you do, obviously, you sacrifice your time, your health, everything to

other people while you're doing this.

And why are you loving it? It's an exciting job.

There's something different every day. But it's helping people in your own

community on their absolute worst day.

This is Greg.

And we're going to learn about CPR.

I'm going to teach you CPR.

I want to teach you how to do it correctly. But not only that, I want to

you when to do it. I heard that you can break someone's ribs while doing that.

And that's normal.

It is.

But it's part of CPR.

This is called a sinus rhythm. That means the heart is beating, and if you

a pulse, you can actually feel it. I can actually feel it, yeah.

Okay, so you do not need to do CPR there. Then you're going to change it to

ventricular fibrillation.

See it all crazy, crazy? See if you feel a pulse.

No. No pulse. No pulse. Feel that little dip right there coming off?

Okay, yeah. It falls off. That's the start of the maneuvering.

You're going to put two fingers down, and then you're going to put your...

flat of your hand right here, right in front of that.

You're going to interlace your fingers.

You're going to get some shoulders over the patient and pump that heart.

You're going to try to go down about two inches and you're going to sing,

staying alive, staying alive. That's going to keep you going about that

Looks like you're doing a good job here, but your rate's a little low. So you're

at 88.

You need to be up about a hundred, a little faster.

There you go.

Okay, now the rhythm's changed.

You want to check a pulse?

Okay, yep.

We saved him. See if he'll wake up for you.

No, unconscious.

What's the most injury that you're going to attend to? Is it shooting? Is it

car? Is it health, like someone is sick?

The vast majority of the flights we go on are medically related. People are

getting more and more unhealthy.

The sedentary lifestyle that people are choosing and all the stuff they're

putting in their bodies, that's what's causing the majority of our flights, I

would say.

All right, so we have another patient here. This is Henry.

What is intubation? I'm assuming it's something through the throat.

Yeah, intubation means we're going to put a breathing tube into the patient's

throat. And we're going to put this into the patient's mouth, under the tongue,

and we're going to look for...

The vocal cords.

Hard to see like this where we are. You see them?

You're going to put the tube through those cords right there.

I'm going to put that on there, and then we start breathing for the patient.

As human beings, we want comfort. We crave comfort because it's the easy way,

and it feels good.

Going against that takes a lot of discipline.

It takes a lot of desire to do that, but the benefits are tremendous.

If they can keep you out of the hospital.

keep you out of the back of this thing, then it's worth its weight in gold.

Go ahead and breathe.

Oh, I don't know. That seems really hard. See how it's so hard?

Yeah. Yeah.

Probably in the wrong spot.

Congratulations.

Henry, I'm sorry.

The patient just died. Is it not too deep? What did I do wrong?

No, it's probably in the esophagus.

And then if he ate a lot of pizza and beer before, it's going to just come

It's going to come right back up.

Like a vomit volcano all over you. Vomit volcano all over you.

How is your shift looking like? Is it 12 hours, 24 hours? The medical staff does

24 -hour shifts.

How many times within 24 -hour period of time you fly?

On average, you're going to fly somewhere between one and three times.

On a busy day, you could have up to five, but some days you have none. So

really hard to say.

I'm going to show you a different way. This is the more modern.

Updated way to do it. This is video laryngoscopy.

I see you.

See that? I see you.

And then we're going to put this in there.

And we know we're in because I saw it go in.

Henry, we'll get another try.

Let's hope I'm not blowing your esophagus again.

I'm blowing esophagus again.

Okay, so what are we doing now?

Okay, surgical cricothriotomy.

English. Do that over.

Do that. That word kind of got messed up.

Surgical cricothyrotomy.

See, now I can't say it. I'm not even going to try it.

Surgical cricothyrotomy.

Surgical cricothyrotomy. Yes.

Or surgical airway for short. Oh.

Now, why would we do this? This would be something all other procedures or

options have failed on somebody. So this is it. If you don't do this right.

Henry dies. He dies.

I'm looking for the Adam's apple.

I run my finger down. And there's a dip right there. There's like a valley.

I think I found it.

Yeah, it's here. So swallow.

There you go. Okay.

Now with my scalpel.

Oh.

Oh, yes. So I made my vertical incision.

Okay. Turn my scalpel sideways.

Going to pierce it. Oh, my God. Damn.

You're putting figure in there? Yes. Now we're going to put our breathing tube

in there.

Okay, we're going to take our breathing tube.

And then you can attach the bag.

You cannot imagine the pressure you're under if you have someone's life in your

hands and one mistake can cause their life.

Yeah, a ton, a ton of pressure.

But you go back to the training you've been through. What would you say to

men right now to encourage them to A, take action in their life, B, do some

stuff? The hardest thing to do.

So make a decision to whether it's to start a new job or take a challenge.

really just that first step.

So we're going to find it.

Okay. That thing that I can't spell.

That's why I'm cutting.

Oh, no, no. You want to go for the soft spot, the valley. You got to take that

first step and then you just go. You know what I mean? But you got to make

decision to do something or you'll do nothing.

Okay. All right. Once that scalpel goes in, it doesn't come out. So something

else goes in there before.

Take a little step, then take another one, and another one, and another one,

you slowly will get to your goal.

But without taking steps, you will be just who you are right now.

We got it. Got it.

All right, Henry.

Hey, there you go.

Have you ever seen Anaconda?

The movie? The movie.

How do you do it? Pa -vo.

What? Pa -vo.

Pa -vo. Pa -vo.

Pa -vo. Pa -vo.

Pa -vo. Pa -vo. Pa -vo. Pa -vo. Pa -vo. Okay. Pa -vo. Okay. Here we go.

Hey, Pa -vo, you've done such a great job today as the chief flight nurse. I

think you're ready, and let's get you started on a flight maybe tomorrow.

You ready? I'm ready. I'm nervous, but I'm ready. All right. Thank you. And

we've got...

I was all trained up and ready to save some lives.

It was a lot to learn in one day, so I went to get some R &R in preparation for

the day to follow.

I'm on my way.

Ranier! I have a victim here!

Got the stressor.

What's the first thing we do?

ABC.

I'm breathing.

He's fine.

He's breathing.

Let's put a collar on him in case he hurt his neck either from the accident

from you dragging him over here.

Kids, never drag a patient like that ever or do this. Never. Okay, so we've

established he's got an airway. He's breathing.

Yeah. Circulation?

No circumcision.

No circumcision. Circulation.

All right, so we're going to fix any bleeding that's going on.

Call Ted. I know nobody loves you, but do you want me to call someone?

No. Okay.

It's way easier.

I'm just about to die.

Okay, I think we've got him stabilized.

Ready to get him moving?

Let's do it. All right, let's get him going.

Antibatium.

Oh, my God.

Poor guy.

Colton, we're going to help him breathe a little bit.

Colton, you ready to breathe?

All right, Colton, I think the tube got dislodged, so we're going to switch it.

They're probably dumb. Okay.

Can you tell me about most memorable story with flying helicopter?

Just recently, I would say we flew a patient that lost their complete lower

And it didn't seem like it would be a good outcome. And then we found out that

that person was going to make it, not only make it, but actually have a pretty

normal life.

I think at the end of the day, you put your family first, above yourself, and

then everything you do, you put your full effort into it.

Is it difficult to be a pilot?

I am 19 years old, and I want to be a pilot. When am I going to be able to

I did my private pilot license in an airplane in one year, and that summer,

just a month and a half, I added on my helicopter rating.

And then that senior year of high school, I went back and I got my

ticket.

Somebody that's out of high school that applies themselves full -time, a year

and a half, two years, would probably be flight instructing full -time.

Hey, Pavel, Pavel, Pavel, Pavel, Pavel, I think his heart's...

What have I learned today?

I've learned that men should hone his technical skills to help those in need.

I've learned that years of a man's dedication can build something that has

real and lasting impact on his community and world.

And I've learned that male nerds can actually be pretty badass.

Doing this is absolutely the most satisfying job I have ever done. It's

reason I've been here 16 years now.

and continue to come to work every day and enjoy coming to work every day. It's

just a phenomenal job.

So you're flying helicopter, you're exposed to blood and trauma all the

and you're loving it.

You got it. Real man right there.

If you want to help Halo Flight with their mission, go to haloflight .org and

donate to the cause.

The coolest ever.

Be a man.

to fly back. So we're flying back? Yeah, send Colton with Patrick.

I want to drive.

You want to drive? You don't want to fly back?

You'll be back quicker.

I will fly.