SASKATOON (Staff) – The emergency medical evacuation of a four-week-old baby by helicopter from an Alberta rodeo has heightened awareness of the STARS air ambulance.
“I don’t know what happened, the little thing just stopped breathing and turned purple,” said Caroline Smyth of the Airdrie rodeo board.
After the helicopter ambulance landed on the Airdrie rodeo grounds and was rushed to a Calgary Hospital, the bull riders and fans began making $100 donations. By the end of the evening more than $1,800 had been collected to help support the air ambulance organization.
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The baby was revived and recovered.
“Often it would be a bull rider that would need the air ambulance service from a rodeo and I think that helped in the fund raising,” said Smyth.
The Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society ambulance service is the only one of its kind in North America, said Stan Grad, STARS chair. It is unique because it’s funded and operated through donations, with the Alberta government providing about 35 percent of the operational costs.
The air ambulance is used to move rural Albertans to city hospitals when timing is critical.
“Rural Albertans want the same level of health care. We’re tired of losing too many people in transit,”said Grad.
“We need this level of care and the government can’t always be relied on to provide it for us. In the country we are used to looking out for ourselves and each other.”
