"At the time when you get the call, your priority is to immediately get your things and get to where the need is," says Richelle Mayzak, a NICU Nurse at Mercy.

In 15 minutes max, the NICU Transport Squad is suited up, loaded up, and out the door. And, they're now able to make it to their destination in just minutes, all thanks to their new helicopter.

"Our time to be able to get to them has been cut in half," says Stacy Webb, another NICU Nurse at Mercy. That time is very precious for some families.

"He was about four weeks early," says Rebecca Elrod, about her new bundle of joy. Immediately after baby Reece was born, Rebecca and her husband Willie knew something was wrong with their baby boy. "He didn't cry right away," says Rebecca.

"He wasn't breathing right," adds Willie. Doctors told the Elrods that baby Reece needed to be transported from Ardmore to Oklahoma City.

"The ambulance, it would have taken two, or two-and-a-half hours or so," says Rebecca.

Mercy is one of only a few hospitals in the state with a level-III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit-- capable of caring for the sickest and tiniest of newborns.

"We want to be there for the community. We want to be there for as many people that would like us to help them. But, that hasn't always happened," says Mayzak. Transportation issues have kept the trained team from helping more babies. "Years ago, we would do just ambulance, so those would take awhile," says Mayzak.

More recently, they were using a fixed-wing plane, but the crew says travel was still lengthy. "We'd have to leave here in an ambulance, go to an airfield to get the fixed-wing, then load up, fly, get to another ambulance, and get to the hospital," says Mayzak.

But, thanks to the new flight program, baby Reece and the Transport Squad were off the ground in Ardmore, and on the ground in Oklahoma City in less than 45 minutes. "We were blessed, you know, to have that there," says Willie.

"We were lucky," adds Rebecca.

"We can get there fast and that's what they need," says Webb. With the new transport program, this crew of life-savers say their much needed services can now reach more people. "Ardmore, Ada, Stillwater; really all over," says Webb. "We're trying to really serve the whole state."

Thanks to the care at Mercy, baby Reece is now home-- happy and healthy, with fully functioning lungs, with his family.