Mercy Air 34, an emergency air ambulance based at the Paso Robles Airport, will be shutting down this November.

“The future is unknown,” said San Luis Obispo County EMS Division Director Ryan Rosander following the recent announcement. “One-thousand lives have either been touched, saved, or otherwise given the best opportunity to be saved when within the county due to Mercy.”

He says Mercy Air 34 has been operating in the county for the past five years and is the only air ambulance in this area that offers blood. The next closest is Bakersfield.

“They also can bypass local hospitals and transport directly to specialty centers that we don't have here out on the Central Coast,” added CAL FIRE EMS Battalion Chief Rob Jenkins. “So they can go direct to children's hospitals, direct to level

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