Helipads enhance remote rescue jobs in Greenville area

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GREENVILLE – As he maneuvered the helicopter over a small, snow-covered clearing in the hinterlands of northern Piscataquis County on a recent Saturday, LifeFlight pilot Dave Burr’s eyes scoured the ground for potential hazards.

The clearing was miles from any roadway in a region dotted by small ponds and by snow, with ice-covered Moosehead Lake in the distance.

Once some scraggly brush was cleared, a few fallen trees removed and the snow packed down, the site would be suitable as a landing pad for emergency evacuations, Burr said.

As more and more people travel on high-powered snowmobiles and recreate farther into the north woods, the need for quicker access in an emergency situation to these remote regions is becoming more evident. Even minor injuries in an accident could quickly escalate to life-threatening status, depending upon the weather, the distance from help and time of day that an accident occurs.

And no one is more aware of that than Dave Bouchard, a certified wilderness paramedic and ambulance coordinator at Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

“People tend to underestimate the power of the environment they’re in,” Bouchard said, during a recent interview prior to the flight.

When called upon by the Maine Warden Service to provide medical assistance in emergency situations, Bouchard and his associates have hauled their gear over logging roads, on snowmobiles, on all-terrain vehicles, in boats and on foot to reach remote accident scenes.

Conservatively, the wilderness team in the Moosehead Lake region has a response area of about 2,500 square miles. They have responded with Maine game wardens to logging, train, boating, hiking, snowmobiling, skiing, and moose-car accidents, as well as to airplane crashes.

Recognizing that time means life or death in some incidents, the Greenville hospital, which is part of Eastern Maine Healthcare, has formed a relationship with LifeFlight, an emergency service owned by EMH and Central Maine Healthcare. A new helipad constructed behind the Greenville hospital will allow for quicker access to that medical facility.

And to more quickly reach injured parties in the wilderness, LifeFlight officials and Bouchard have spent considerable time searching and identifying potential helicopter landing sites in the Moosehead Lake region. A total of 14 locations have been identified, each named according to their locations, such as Lily Bay and Spencer Bay, in cooperation with the Maine Warden Service.

In some instances, a barn, a dirt strip or a flagpole designates a landing site near an outpost. Any improvements needed to the sites are done by volunteers from the local snowmobile clubs, Bouchard said.

In the two-year span that LifeFlight has been in operation, 25 flights have been made to the Moosehead Lake region.

“I think you need to think about us being no different than a hospital or an emergency room department at the hospital,” Tom Judge, executive director of LifeFlight, said during a recent interview. The flight company, he said, is identifying landing sites in other remote areas of Maine, as well.

That pleases the Maine Warden Service.

“LifeFlight is a godsend,” said Lt. Pat Dorian from Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife headquarters in Greenville. “They have made such a positive impact in the way we’re able to respond to these incidents.”

Although the Maine Army National Guard, 112th Medical Company, has assisted at accident scenes in the past, the Guard operation is more search and rescue, Judge said.

“We’re like the ambulance service,” he said, in comparing LifeFlight. “We work hand in hand with the 112th.” As an example, he cited an incident in which a youngster had to be hoisted out of a quarry by the Guard. LifeFlight staff, who also responded to the incident, provided medical treatment to the youth while in the air en route to a medical facility.

“There are some things we can do to complement each other,” concurred Lt. Col. Dave Smith, the state army aviation officer with the Maine Army National Guard. He said Monday that LifeFlight “provided a service to the state that was probably needed.”

The Maine Army National Guard’s aircraft responds to emergency situations in the state when weather makes flights by LifeFlight impossible. In other special circumstances; however, the Guard cannot compete with private companies, Smith said.

Smith said LifeFlight has a higher level of medical equipment on board during its flights, as well as a flight nurse and flight medic. The Guard’s aircraft serves as more of a “remote technical rescue service.”

Despite the differences, the fact that another avenue is available to use in medical emergencies is beneficial to the region, Dorian said.

Once Bouchard’s team reaches a victim and determines the seriousness of the situation, they then coordinate an evacuation plan and the medical attention needed for the patient.

But in situations where a patient needs critical, life-saving, surgical attention, other resources must be summoned, according to Mary Marin Lyon, director of community relations and development at C. A. Dean Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home.

“With victims in the field and many hours away from C.A. Dean’s emergency room, Dave and other emergency personnel know they had to be more responsive,” Lyon said recently.

“We’ve had runs as much as 18 hours before we can get them [injured people in remote areas] to definitive care,” Bouchard said Saturday. The remoteness and weather conditions play a role in how long rescues take, he said.

Six rescue sleds have been placed in strategic locations in the region to be used in emergency situations. These include Pittston Farm, North East Carry and Rockwood.

“You use a lot of common sense and any resources you have because you’re dealing with remote areas, environmental issues, such as cold and wind, and long transports,” Bouchard said.

“You can’t be too prepared going on these calls,” he said.

Burr agreed. “There are still folks that don’t realize or don’t want to realize the benefits, and speed is one of them.”