A sad story has emerged from Sitka along this topic. This past week Molly Allgren (sp) an EMT was killed when the rescue boat she was in hit a rock and she sustained a fatal head injury. Molly was a Professor at local college and much involved in the community. They had been called out to medivac a state trooper trainee who was participating in the wilderness survival part of their curriculum on an island off the Sitka coast. As the story now unfolds it seems the medivac was unnecesary. The trainee had badly cut his thumb but the first aid rendered on the scene had stopped the bleeding. The rescue call came at night and the conditions were bad. Rain and wind. Also this is a tricky area for power boaters in daylight. Lots of rocks and shoals. The conscencious is this rescue could have waited till morning and not placed the recuers at risk. Currently they are investigating why the decision was made to do the medivac. In the mean time I hope it will make us all paddle a little safer to stay out of trouble and make a good assesment of our perdicament before we call for help. Bob *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Carter" <revkayak_at_aptalaska.net> To: "paddlewise" <paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net> > As the story now unfolds it seems the medivac was unnecesary. The > trainee had badly cut his thumb but the first aid rendered on the scene > had stopped the bleeding. The rescue call came at night and the conditions > were bad. Rain and wind. typically here in the US the regulations as applies to aircraft borne rescues is that the go-no go decision is to be made only by the aircraft crew and they are to have no knowledge of the particulars of the medical condition or urgency. IE they are not allowed to take the initial call for rescue in order to prevent them making the choice based on urgency of the medical aid needed but instead on the actual viability of successfully carrying out the operation given current meteorological condition. A few years back we had an operator here in Maine who what attempting to get a helo/medevac operation going was short staffed and took the call himself. Alterior motives of business viability came in to play and he made a number of bad choices. Sadly his passangers, crew and patient (a burn case) were killed when he ran out of fuel as a result of increased headwinds and delays and had to park it in the water in the middle of a snowstorm. He survived after treading water for several hours. michael *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Carter" <revkayak_at_aptalaska.net> To: "paddlewise" <paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net> > As the story now unfolds it seems the medivac was unnecesary. The > trainee had badly cut his thumb but the first aid rendered on the scene > had stopped the bleeding. The rescue call came at night and the conditions > were bad. Rain and wind. typically here in the US the regulations as applies to aircraft borne rescues is that the go-no go decision is to be made only by the aircraft crew and they are to have no knowledge of the particulars of the medical condition or urgency. IE they are not allowed to take the initial call for rescue in order to prevent them making the choice based on urgency of the medical aid needed but instead on the actual viability of successfully carrying out the operation given current meteorological condition. A few years back we had an operator here in Maine who was attempting to get a helo/medevac operation going, was short staffed and took the call himself. Alterior motives of business viability came in to play and he made a number of bad choices. Sadly his passangers, crew and patient (a burn case) were killed when he ran out of fuel as a result of increased headwinds and delays and had to park it in the water in the middle of a snowstorm. He survived after treading water for several hours. michael *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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