Monday, March 29, 2010
** Names of deceased released in Tennessee air ambulance crash
** Fundraiser for Florida EMT who suffered traumatic amputation raises $9,000
** Prince Edward Island EMS emergency speed caps here to stay, health minister says
UNITED STATES NEWS
** Police have now released the names of three crew members killed Thursday morning in an air ambulance crash in Tennessee. The Commercial Appeal (Cindy Wolff/March 26) said the deceased have been identified as Dyersburg resident Cindy Parker, 48, Jackson citizen Misty Brogdon, 36, and pilot Doug Phillips, 58. All three were killed around 6 a.m. when their Hospital Wing chopper went down near Brownsville. The newspaper said initial information on the accident has investigators focusing on weather as a contributing factor to the crash. A line of thunderstorms was known to be present in the region at the time. Continuing to comb through the debris field, searchers have so far recovered a computer chip which will offer clues as to the helicopter’s speed, engine operation, and flight control. The aircraft did not, however, carry a flight data or black box cockpit voice recorder.
** Friends and colleagues of a Fort Pierce, Florida EMT, who lost his leg in a traumatic amputation at an on-the-job accident scene, have raised $9,000 to aid him with medical expenses. That is the word from News 12 (March 26) which said the fundraiser at the city’s Big Apple Pizza and Pasta was held last Thursday night. According to the newspaper, proceeds were derived from 100 per cent of the cost of selling food and beverages at the event. Chris Doyle, who is the practitioner in question, lost his lower left leg after the EMS unit he was in was struck by a car at an intersection March 2.
CANADA NEWS
** Prince Edward Island (PEI) paramedics, who were hoping the province’s health minister would lift EMS speed restrictions, were disappointed Thursday when Carolyn Bertram sided with Island EMS brass on the matter. The Guardian (Wayne Thibodeau/March 26) quoted Bertram as saying the decision retaining the 10-20 km emergency speed margin over existing limits contributes to patient safety. Bertram made the remarks after a closed door meeting with Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) officials which lasted over an hour. CUPE spokesman Bill McKinnon countered Bertram’s assessment by saying researchers have by no means come to a consensus that would back the minister’s position. Bertram’s pronouncement came just one day after an Island EMS press conference in which the service quoted info from an EMS safety expert who called ambulances the most dangerous vehicles on the road.
