LEWISTON – The program coordinator-base manager of LifeFlight of Maine’s Lewiston base will be the featured speaker at a Central Maine Healthcare Community Breakfast Forum on Thursday, March 18.

Lori Metayer, RN, EMT-P, will discuss “LifeFlight of Maine: Five Years in the Air” at the breakfast presentation from 7:30 to 9 a.m. in the Central Maine Medical Center Conference Center, located on the ground floor of the 12 High Street Medical Office Building.

She will talk about the development and operation of Maine’s first hospital-based medical helicopter service.

Metayer is one of a relatively few EMS providers who holds the distinction of being both a registered nurse and paramedic. She began her health care career in 1982 when she took a job as a nurse’s aide. In 1984 she graduated from the Central Maine Medical Center School of Nursing. She later earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Southern Maine in Portland and subsequently gained paramedic certification.

Her nursing career began on the CMMC Intensive Care Unit, and she was later named manager of the Orthopedic-Neurosurgery Nursing Unit. Next she worked for three years as evening nursing supervisor, but her interest in critical care nursing eventually drew her back to the ICU and Emergency Department.

In 1998 Metayer was named CMMC’s Emergency Nurse of the Year. When LifeFlight of Maine began operations that same year, she joined the new service as a flight nurse. Because of its special status as critical care transporter, LifeFlight is the only Maine EMS organization with nurses in the field.

Metayer is a member of the national outreach committee for the Association of Air Medical Services and has presented clinical and safety educational programs throughout Maine and nationally.

Since its inception, LifeFlight of Maine has flown nearly 2,900 patients. With bases at CMMC and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, the medical helicopter service can cover the state, including its coastal islands.

More than half of LifeFlight’s patients have been trauma victims, although flights have also included people with acute medical conditions, cardiac problems, high-risk pregnancies, neurological emergencies and environmental injuries.

The forum is open to the public. Those wishing to attend are asked to call 795-2957 or e-mail cmcnally@cmhc.org by Friday, March 12.

The entrance to the 12 High Street Building is located across the street from the CMMC parking garage. Free parking is available in the garage and in adjacent parking lots.