20101229054839A

Pilot departed pitt greenville hospital enroute to carteret hospital. At about 2000 feet and about 3-4 minutes from destination (12 miles south of nkt), pilot had the autopilot on and disengaged it. Shortly after disengaging the autopilot, pilot right arm fell to his side with no feeling and no numbness. He told the crew of 2 (flight nurse and paramedic) what was going on. He radioed Mcas Cherry Point (nkt) and declared an emergency. Mcas ATC had aircraft on radar and told pilot morehead city airport was about a mile and a half on the right. Pilot didn't want to go there because it's a little airport and there's really nothing there. He turned the airport lights on with his radio. Pilot told ATC he wanted to go to Cherry Point. ATC said it was alright. When pilot first turned toward Mcas, his first thought was about doing the ILS and using the autopilot. With it he would be able to fly it all the way to the ground or at least fly to a Point a few hundred feet off the ground where he could set up for a landing. As he was thinking about it, he didn't know what was going on. He didn't know how much time he had or about the use of his right arm or if things were going to get worse or if he had time for the ILS. He elected not to use the autopilot or set up the ILS. He wanted to go straight into Mcas while ATC gave him headings to the runway. He went over the airfield while ATC turned on all the lights & gave him a 180 degree turn. Pilot said he didn't see all the lights at first but saw it the next time when he got turned around and straightened out where he was. Pilot thought about how he was going to control aircraft while turning around. He flew with his left hand and knees and told the nurse (who was up front)to work the collective. He told nurse to push it down, push it down, now pull it up, pull it up. When they got turned around, he was flying with his left hand and knees, made an 180 degree turn and got lined up on the runway. Pilot made a running landing to the runway. Pilot stated it was difficult to maintain stability with his left hand. He wanted to land with some airspeed because he knew he couldn't hover. He was not sure what happened on touchdown but assumes helo came down once and went back up for several hundred feet and came back down and landed on runway 14L, stopping really quick. He saw a lot of sparks on the runway. As the aircraft came to a stop, he shut the aircraft down and evacuated. Once the aircraft stopped, the paramedic (in back) got out and came to the door. She opened the door while the blades were still turning. She asked about turning it off and stopping the rotor blades. Pilot told her where the rotor brake was and said to grab the handle and pull it out. Pilot climbed out and the emergency crew helped him get out. No injuries or fatalities. Investigation revealed pilot had a stroke while piloting the helo. Under carriage was bent, rear stinger scrapped and 2 inches of the bottom righ stab was broken off due to impact. Eurocopter inspected helo and determined there was substantial damage.