ORNGE says air transport for critical patients in northern Ontario is still too long but getting better
CBC
Representatives of the province’s air ambulance operation, ORNGE, said that it’s still impossible to meet the provincial ministry of health’s timelines for transportation of critically ill patients in the north, although response times have improved since 2021.
Chief Operating Officer Wade Durham and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Sawadsky testified at the inquest into the deaths of five members of Constance Lake First Nation during an outbreak of a fungal lung disease in 2021.
Two people, 43 year-old Luke Moore and 56 year-old Lizzie Sutherland died at the Notre Dame hospital in Hearst while waiting for flights to better-equipped hospitals.
Their cause of death was blastomycosis.
Sawadsky explained that the most critically ill patients, described as having a life or limb threatening condition, are supposed to be picked up and taken to their destination within four hours, and cannot be refused care, according to the province’s policy.
He said, however, that is impossible in northern Ontario because of the vast distances.
Sawadsky said in reality, in 2021, at the time of the outbreak, the median time to get an air ambulance to a critically ill patient in the north, to a town such as Hearst, was five hours, but that has since improved to just under four.
That does not, he said, include the time to then get the patient to their destination and receiving higher levels of care.
However, weather conditions also can wreak havoc on getting to patients, as the witnesses described in the case of 43 year-old Luke Moore.
Late in the afternoon of Nov. 18. 2021, doctors said Moore was critically ill at the Hearst hospital in Hearst and needing the fastest response that ORNGE could muster to airlift him to Health Sciences North (HSN) in Sudbury.
However, it didn’t take long for the pilot of the plane at the nearest base in Timmins to say it wasn’t possible to land at the Hearst airport.
The reasons given were snow on the runway, high cross-winds and lack of de-icing equipment at the Hearst airport.
ORNGE COO Wade Durham said even if the runway had been clear and there was de-icing equipment available, the crosswinds would have prevented the plane from landing.
As well, a helicopter in Sudbury couldn't fly in because of poor visibility and helicopters generally don’t fly through clouds in winter because they pick up ice.
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted.
One of the largest taxi companies in Toronto will be down to three wheelchair-accessible cabs by the end of March, as advocates and providers say the city is failing to support accessible taxi drivers.
As a deep freeze continues to envelop southwestern Ontario at the same time municipalities deal with a pressing shortage of road salt, there's a renewed focus on finding different ways to melt road ice.
Dave Lawson is a proud Canadian who has bumper stickers that say "Canada is not for sale." He's fed up with grocery products plastered with maple leaves and patriotic logos that turn out to be American imports.
The Town of Badger has issued an evacuation order for some residents as water levels on the Exploits River continue to rise.
The head of a national seniors' advocacy organization says protecting nursing home residents from sexual abuse is an important but challenging issue.
New data shows Winnipeg's fire-paramedic service fielded hundreds of reports involving the city's homeless population, but one advocate says she expects that number to go down in light of the city's limits on where encampments can be.
Former students of the Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the federal government.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.