Members of the Quesnel Search and Rescue team proved once again that they are always ready to answer the call.
SARS Manager, Director, Bob Holowenko said they had an opportunity to participate in the Billy Barker Days Parade Saturday morning (July 19) and while they were in the process of lining up to show off our team, we ended up getting a call out.
“We got early notice from BC Parks Rangers that they had somebody in the Park (Bowron Lake Chain) who was showing some very significant signs of illness and they requested that we respond.” Holowenko said, “In order to respond we had to get the official request through Emergency Management BC. Once we were able to get that our team finished our demobilization from the Parade which happened before we got the official good to go message. As soon as we had that we began preparing to head out to the Bowron.”
Holowenko said they established an incident command post out in Wells and from there we fly two of our medics into this location in the Bowron Lake Chain, picked up the gentleman who was experiencing some problem and brought him back to our staging area.
“We completed an on scene assessment with our higher level medics. It was then decided that we were going to transport him to Prince George Airport to meet with BC Emergency Health Services paramedic in order to give him a higher level of care.”
He noted the time from Quesnel to the landing area is about one hour which is roughly about the amount of time it takes for a helicopter to lift off from Prince George, do all their pre-flight, and then land at the location we used as a staging area.
“We sent our teams out as soon as we were able to. The helicopter was there just moments behind them. From there it’s about a 20 to 25 minute flight from the landing zone into where we extract the gentleman from the Bowron Lake Chain Park.”
Holowenko said they have very well trained Park Rangers and Park Operators, they were the first ones on scene.
“They did the initial assessment, they provided the initial communication and it was actually BC Parks who gave us the heads up that we may need to go out to Bowron Lake and pickup someone who is showing signs of cardiac problems. I can’t say enough good things about how BC Parks handled this situation, both their in-park representatives as well as their coordinators who are outside the Park,” Holowenko said.
Holowenko thanks the people from the BC Emergency Health Services Dispatch Centre, to the paramedics at the PG Airport, and to Yellowhead Helicopters, who was our contractor of the day and were able to source a helicopter as well as an available pilot on what is one of their busiest weekends.
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