BRANDON — Co-ordination was key in the response to the deadly Carberry bus crash last year, the chief medical officer for STARS Air Ambulance says.
Dr. John Froh, in town for this week’s Association of Manitoba Municipalities’ spring convention at Brandon’s Keystone Centre, said 20 personnel from STARS were mustered in response to the event during a Wednesday interview with the Brandon Sun.
STARS dispatched two helicopters, one from its base in Winnipeg and the other from Regina, to Carberry after the June 15, 2023, tragedy that claimed the lives of 17 people.
Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun
Dr. John Froh, Chief Medical Officer for STARS.
STARS’ personnel included 13 health-care providers dispatched to help at Brandon Regional Health Centre.
“The local first responders, the local paramedics, the local health-care facilities did an amazing job there,” Froh said. “We were part of a co-ordinated effort to provide care in an area that was pretty much overwhelmed with a number of casualties.”
In a mass casualty event in Manitoba, Froh said STARS’ involvement is provided through the Medical Transportation Co-ordination Centre, which is based out of Brandon.
As a non-profit, Froh said STARS is primarily funded through government contracts, but it also fundraises to supplement its resources.
“That is very important for us, it allows us to continue to push the boundary in terms of care, also to pivot when we need to,” Froh said. “We’re a much smaller organization and so that kind of ability to be nimble is also somewhat entrenched in our funding model.”
In order to work with STARS’ medical teams, Froh said nurses and paramedics go through a 20-week-long academy training program to prepare. Factors they have to deal with in the air ambulances include changes in atmospheric pressure and altitude, noise and vibration.
Because of the nature of its work, STARS staff frequently deal with some of the sickest patients in the provinces they serve, Froh said.
The doctor said STARS has a presence at the convention to enhance municipalities’ awareness of what the organization does and how it connects into Manitoba’s health-care safety net.
A poster next to STARS’ booth in the trade show portion of the convention showed how many times the organizations had teams dispatched to various Manitoba municipalities in the 2022-23 fiscal year. In that time frame, STARS teams were sent to Brandon 40 times.
Froh will deliver a keynote address today at 2:15 p.m. in the Keystone Centre’s UCT Pavilion.
— Brandon Sun