FLOWER’S COVE — The Straits fire chief Hank Diamond said that things could have gone a lot of worse.
It took his firefighters eight hours to get an injured snowmobiler out of the woods and to a hospital, but if things went wrong, Diamond said the man very well could have died.
Diamond also said they would have had him out of the woods faster, if they hadn’t been forced to wait around for an hour and a half to see about a search and rescue helicopter that never ended up coming.
“I found communications to be a big problem for us,” he said. “I really wanted to talk to the guys in the trenches. There was no need for me to be talking to the clinic in Flowers Cove, and them talking to the air ambulance in St. John’s, and them talking to search and rescue.”
Now, The Straits-White Bay North MHA Christopher Mitchelmore has written a letter to Health Minister Susan Sullivan, asking her to conduct an investigation into emergency protocols.
“We simply cannot continue to gamble with people’s lives,” Mitchelmore wrote. “This individual had a known heart condition. The shock could have triggered a cardiac arrest. Communication needs to be strengthened across government departments.”
Sullivan would not do an interview on the subject.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said, “The Department is looking into this matter and gathering the necessary information to respond to Mr. Mitchelmore’s letter and concerns. Once the Department has the necessary information the minister may be in a better position to respond then.”
Roland Way and his wife, Patsy, were out for a routine ride last Sunday with friends in the back country when Roland, who was driving, rode over a hole in the marsh that he couldn’t see about 20 miles southwest of Flower’s Cove.
They fell approximately eight feet into the ground, dislocating Roland’s hip and fracturing some of Patsy’s ribs, as well as tearing some of her knee and ankle ligaments.
Patsy told The Western Star the couple’s friends managed to get them out of the hole and take them to a nearby cabin, where the Flower’s Cove deputy fire chief, who happened to be on the ride with them, managed to call for help.
Diamond took the call and in turn called for search and rescue help, which he was told could not happen because of inclement weather.
“We had a bad forecast, it was snowing heavily with 70-80 km/h winds blowing at that point, it was quite awhile before we heard back that they weren’t coming.” he said.
About half of Flower’s Cove’s fire department went to cabin, Diamond said, and they made the decision to move Roland out. They got him to the highway using a shortcut, where paramedics met them, after being contacted by cellphone.
In spite of that shortcut, Roland still had to travel 35 km lying down in an open rescue toboggan with a broken hip. When they got to the highway, they had to wait for the ambulance for over a half-hour.
“We got to the help centre in Flower’s Cove around seven and they shipped him to the hospital in St. Anthony,” Patsy said. “And then he was shipped into St. John’s where he had to have surgery.”
Roland was under the knife on Thursday afternoon to get his hip repaired. Patsy had her injuries treated in St. Anthony.
Patsy said it was stressful, but she understands search and rescue not being able to fly in to provide assistance.
Diamond agreed, but added that something needs to change for the area.
“I don’t blame search and rescue,” he said. “But I think it’s time for us to realize ... or get something that can actually work in those kind of conditions ... like better choppers, better equipment or some kind of land-based mobile unit here in the Straits area because we feel pretty vulnerable when there no outside agencies available to help.”
In a letter to Health and Community Services, Mitchelmore called for a review into the situation, asking for strengthened communications between the departments. He suggested closed rescue toboggans or all-terrain ambulance services.
Patsy called the members of the fire department “heroes.”
“If it wasn’t for them I don’t know what we would have done,” she said. “They really helped us, it could have been so much worse.”
