New team to help people stuck at remote sites
Posted August 9, 2017 7:08 am.
Last Updated August 9, 2017 5:02 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SQUAMISH (NEWS 1130) – The next time someone is injured on the peaks of the backcountry, or a remote river work site, search and rescue crews and paramedics may be getting some assistance from a new team.
A new aeromedical society has been launched to bring advanced pre-hospital care and medical transport to BC’s austere terrain.
Its name is the Technical Evacuation Advanced Aero Medical Society but you can call them TEAAM for short.
“TEAAM Aeromedical is an aeromedical society that is focused on delivering advanced life support care in remote settings, particularly in industrial settings,” explains President Miles Randell, who is also a North Shore Rescue volunteer. “Based out of Squamish and Whistler we can reach as far as Sun Peaks, just east of Kamloops, and we can go as far as Port Hardy on Vancouver Island,”
He adds this service doesn’t replace what’s already available, but instead complement crews.
“We respect all the agencies currently performing rescue and medical work, but are focused on filling a gap where advanced life support (ALS) care is not already provided,” he explains. “We definitely want to make a difference. I’m starting it in the Sea to Sky area because I live here and passionately care about it and want to improve health care delivery here.”
The one base, with helicopter, air crew, paramedics, physicians and experts costs about $2.5 million to operate.
