Emotional Debate Reopens -- Yes To Helicopter Pad At Children's Hospital

DEBATE over an emergency helicopter pad at Children's Hospital and Medical Center has gone on too long. A permanent landing should be built as soon as possible.

Saving lives of children takes precedence over out-of-proportion objections by some Laurelhurst residents to noise that is, at worst, infrequent.

Since the early '70s, some critically ill and injured children have required emergency helicopter transport to the hospital. In 1984, the hospital applied for a permanent landing pad. Opposition tied up the plan. Helicopter landings have continued on a grass plot just outside the emergency room.

An environmental-impact statement has been completed, and the city's Department of Construction and Land Use has recommended the hospital be granted a permit for a permanent landing pad.

Tomorrow, at 9 a.m. in the Alaska Building, the city's hearing examiner will take public comment on the recommendation. City Council consideration is expected in late summer.

Very vocal opposition by some neighbors is expected to be renewed. It has less merit now than before.

As a compromise to minimize noise, the proposal calls for landing only the most critically ill or injured children at the hospital. Other emergency cases that can withstand the time delay will continue to be brought by helicopter to the University of Washington intramural field. They will be relayed the remaining short distance by ambulance.

Helicopter noise at the nearest residence measures about the same amount of decibels as an ambulance siren from 500 feet. The chopper noise is short-term and infrequent.

The hospital estimates that through 1995 an average of 15 to 21 children a month may need emergency helicopter transport. Under one alternative compromise, only 3 to 5 of that number would be taken directly to the hospital. The rest would be landed at the UW intramural field.

This is not a huge neighborhood inconvenience for what is at stake: precious moments that could mean life or death for a child.