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A CH-146 Griffon helicopter from 417 Combat Support Squadron from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alta., took to the skies in record-breaking winds on Jan. 15 for a medevac (medical evacuation) flight.
The patient, an expectant mother from Bonnyville Regional Hospital, had gone into labour ten weeks early. She was transported from the hospital in Bonnyville, approximately 45 kilometres from Cold Lake, to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, nearly 200 kilometres away.
High winds and slippery runways had grounded Alberta’s fixed-wing air ambulance, and the crosswinds were beyond the limits of helicopters from STARS (Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society), a charitable organization that provides emergency medical transport in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Upon receiving the call, 417 Squadron’s aircrew and groundcrew began planning the mission and readying the aircraft. The Griffon had to be prepared for a medevac mission, including configuring it for a wheeled gurney – a first for 417 Squadron.
“We were out the door so quickly [that Bonnyville Hospital] had to delay us half an hour. They weren’t ready for us,” said Captain James Gray, the mission’s first officer.
Soon after landing the Griffon on the hospital’s helipad, the crew, the patient, her doctors and a paramedic from the Cold Lake Ambulance were en route to the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
In spite of the winds, the flight was uneventful. “It was mostly a crosswind,” Captain Gray said. “The turbulence wasn’t that bad.”
The crew landed the Griffon at the Royal Alexandra Hospital rooftop helipad, another rare manoeuver for 417 Squadron.
“For everybody on that phone, the discussion was never ‘whose responsibility is this?’” said Sandra Marini, the on-call manager for Alberta Air Ambulance who first contacted the military for support. “Everybody’s concern was how do we get Mom to Royal Alexandra Hospital? You look at the big picture and realize that everybody worked really well. We were able on a challenging day to move a lady to where she needed to be with her baby.”
“From the bottom of my heart, I’m extremely grateful for the military pilots and the other military personnel that came along, as well as the doctor on call and the paramedic,” said the patient, Holly Moyah.
She remained under observation at the hospital.
While the weather was windy and dramatic, Captain Gray says the mission was not an especially daring feat.
“From our standpoint it’s not an exciting mission, but it’s an important mission,” he said. “This is our job, this is what our training is. You get a phone call, you plan and you go. What’s amazing to see is how the squadron comes together as one team – aircrew as well as groundcrew. As soon as we got the call, the groundcrew was ready for direction. It’s really good for the morale of the squadron when we do well.”
