Uppity Nola residents hate sick kids

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From front porches on Tchoupitoulas Street, neighbors can see the helicopter when it lands at the edge of the hospital campus. Before they see it, they hear it.

“It’s like it’s inside the house,” said Arthur Wisdom, 59, who lives across the street from the new landing pad. When the helicopter comes in, it’s loud enough to shake windows and stop conversation, neighbors said. Usually there is about one landing per day, but sometimes there are two or three, they said.

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Children's, which is operated by LCMC Health, owns a blue-and-white striped Eurocopter, a twin-engine aircraft nicknamed Abby that is used to ferry young, often critically ill patients for medical treatment. For years, the hospital's helipad was located on the far side of the hospital campus near the Mississippi River and the Henry Clay Avenue Wharf. But during the hospital's renovation, which began in 2017 and has been projected to end in 2021, take-offs and landings of the helicopter were moved to a helipad closer to Tchoupitoulas Street between Henry Clay and Calhoun Street.

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That puts it about a block closer to the neighborhood and right across the street from some homes.

Wisdom said he and almost 100 other neighbors aren't against Children’s use of a helicopter. They want the hospital to go back to using the older landing pad, which they said never bothered anyone who lives nearby.

Children’s Hospital said that the change of the landing site was related to patient and crew safety. The hospital would not provide more specifics, though it appears that the former site of the helipad was low to the ground and near the hospital's main entrance, while the new site is atop a multi-story building and closer to the ambulance entrance.

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