Baby girl delivered during aerial medevac

La Ronge EMS posted a tweet on Nov. 30 saying a baby girl had been delivered some 10,000 feet in the air.

According to Corey Ecarnot, the operations manager for La Ronge EMS, the baby girl and her family are in good condition.

Births in the air are not an uncommon occurrence for La Ronge Emergency Medical Services. Ecarnot estimated the baby girl born last week was the fifth or sixth delivered in the air in the last six months. Typically such deliveries happen due to patients’ remote location.

“Our transport time from La Ronge to [the Victoria Hospital] if they are going down to be delivered in Prince Albert… is up to two and a half hours long,” Ecarnot said.

Ecarnot estimated La Ronge Emergency Medical Services can receive 30 to 50 labour or pregnancy calls during any given month.

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La Ronge Emergency Medical Services employs 30 people. Ecarnot said the crew consists of four paramedics who are on call for aerial services during a 24-hour period which staffs two aircraft at all times.

When paramedics are forced to deliver a baby in the air, their surroundings are similar to an ambulance according to Ecarnot many of the same tools are within an arm’s reach. Turbulence is one issue which can crop up during and aerial delivery.

“There really is not much difference between being in the back of an ambulance or in the back of an aircraft,” Ecarnot said. “Sometimes it’s a little rough in the air; you can’t pull over and stop the aircraft like you can pull over and stop an ambulance.”

The northern air medevac program doesn’t have any boundaries in terms of their coverage area. Ecarnot said calls have been placed from north of Fond du Lac, and as far south as Regina. Calls have even taken staff as far east as Winnipeg.

A variety of aircraft are used for medevac services.

“The King Air 200 is our main aircrafts; the 200’s are the same as the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance uses,” he said. “We also have to use aircrafts such as Twin Otters [or] helicopters to get into remote locations which have smaller runways.”

He said float planes are used to access trappers who may be far from civilization on their lines.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca 

On Twitter: @BryanEneas