Air Ambulance lands in Moosomin
For the first time, a patient was transported by Air Ambulance at Moosomin’s expanded airport
July 22, 2024, 9:40 am
Joey Light and Kevin Weedmark
Saskatchewan Air Ambulance has started landing in Moosomin, with flights Tuesday and Wednesday last week to pick up patients.
Patients were transferred from ground ambulance to air ambulance at the airport.
The airport is in the final stages of a $10.6 million expansion designed to accommodate the Air Ambulance.
A new runway has been built and paved. The final stages include installing electricity, runway lights, runway markings and electronics.
Jeff St. Onge says he is extremely excited to see the airport in use. “Dr. Van and I were so excited when the Air Ambulance came in Tuesday,” said St. Onge. “We got to watch it land and talk to the pilots, we want to be up to speed on what makes a better airport and how we can accommodate the pilots.”
“Right now our airport is functional,” St. Onge said. “We hope to make improvements in the future to make our airport even better.
“Yesterday the first Air Ambulance landed and Dr. Van and I were very excited to finally see this happen after all the work that went into getting the airport open, and all the support from the community and surrounding area to help get it up and running. It’s just phenomenal to see everything come together and finally be able to get the Air Ambulance here. This airport is not only good for the medical side but the business side of things as well. We had people fly in and stay all weekend in town, as well as spray planes coming in and out. Having this Air Ambulance saves doctors and patients a ton of time in transportation, which is very very important in some cases.”
Air Ambulance happy to serve Moosomin region
David Mandzuk, Manager of Saskatchewan Air Ambulance, said he is happy to see the first landings.
“I want to congratulate Moosomin and surrounding communities for all of your efforts to rebuild and revitalize the Moosomin airport. Saskatchewan Air Ambulance now has an excellent facility in which to conduct medevac transports that will serve Moosomin and the surrounding community. We have been to Moosomin twice this week and could have performed a third transport if our crews had not been on other transports at the time of that request.
“I am looking forward to having 24 hour capability for access to the airport and understand that this should be in place this fall.
Dr. Van says Air Ambulance serves a real need for the area
As the Air Ambulance landed in Moosomin for the second time last week, on Wednesday, Dr. Schalk van der Merwe said it was vitally important to have the service available.
“Today we had a call again. STARS had to go out to a different location to get somebody else who was critically ill and the air ambulance said ‘We can come because there’s a new runway in Moosomin,’ ” van der Merwe said.
“So we know that the other critically ill patient is getting the care they need, and it’s because we have this runway. Six months ago we didn’t have the option. So what that means for me is that I can come here, I can transfer the patient over which takes me out of the hospital for 20 minutes versus of a five hour round trip if I went to Regina.
“What a phenomenal project to be a part of. I can’t help but smile because as serious as the situation is, we have this option because people believed in it, and it’s life or death.
“And if we had to take the road ambulance and I’m out of the community for five hours, what do we do? Then another doctor has to step in, which they do, but I mean the physician is out of the community delivering care to critically sick people. So with the runway, the Air Ambulance can get critically ill people right to the care they need. I just want to say to everybody, ‘Thank you for all of your support. Thank you for your continued support.’ The air ambulance has now been here twice in two days. Before that they were here once in 10 years. Not because they didn’t want to come but because if it was dark, they didn’t come. If it was snowy they couldn’t come. Now, with all of this, they can really come anytime.”
He said the Southeast Integrated Care Centre is getting busier and it’s good to have the option of the Air Ambulance to transport patients. “As we get busier it’s just a matter of math,” he said. “When you see so many more people, so many more people are sick and so many more people need to be transported out. Now we have more options—do we go fixed wing, do we go rotary wing or do we go road ambulance? It’s just having those options.
“The sound of a plane is one of the best things to hear when your loved one is critically sick because you know that they’re going to the care they need right away.”
He said he was thrilled to see the Air Ambulance land for the first time in Moosomin.
“You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face all day,” he said. “I was just like, ‘Ah, it’s so fantastic!’ I went home to my wife last night and I said, ‘Today is the best day. It’s a great day.’ When you think that it started out with two guys wanting to put lights on the runway, and look where it’s brought us. Somebody got the care they needed, and that’s what it’s about. Thinking about it, for people to commit over $10 million to a project like this, and then for it to deliver exactly what it was built for, to land the air ambulance, it’s unbelievable. I don’t have words. I’ve been thinking of a way to capture this exactly and I just can’t. I don’t have the vocabulary. It’s almost like a roller coaster where you get that excited feeling in the pit of your stomach. That’s the way to describe it.”
