By A.P. Crawford (ap.crawford@skipatrol.ca)
Hilary Prouse, Nancy Askin, Jason Willet, Paul Hendrie – Sault Ste. Marie Zone
On December 23, 2022, Nancy Askin, paid ski patrol director at Searchmont Resort, received a radio call about a serious incident on one of the runs. A 27-year-old novice skier had gone off the side of a trail at high speed and hit his head on a rock. He was found face down, wearing a helmet. He had skied that run twice before.
Marshalling her resources, Nancy dispatched Jason Willet (off-duty paramedic, on-duty paid patroller) and Hilary Prouse (volunteer CSP patroller) to the scene. Jason arrived on scene first, and immediately assessed the patient, determining that he would require additional resources and a call to EMS. Jason made that call to EMS as directed. Hilary arrived a couple of minutes later, secured the scene, then monitored and recorded vital signs as Jason was speaking with EMS. The patient was unresponsive, breathing and had a pulse.
When Nancy arrived at the top of the chair to bring the toboggan to the scene she noticed that Paul Hendrie (off-duty paramedic and off-duty paid patroller) was at the top and she requested his assistance at the scene, which he immediately moved to do.
Upon arrival at the scene, Nancy secured the toboggan and retrieved the anticipated equipment that would be required to extricate the patient, providing it to Jason, Paul and Hilary. Working as a team, the four patrollers rolled the patient and loaded him onto a backboard and then into the toboggan for transport. Given the size of the patient (more than 260 lbs), bystander friends of his assisted in loading him into the toboggan. All the while, Jason was speaking loudly to the patient who was not responsive. Once secured into the toboggan, Nancy piloted it to the patrol room quickly.
Upon arrival at the patrol room, the loaded toboggan was brought inside and the team continued to monitor the patient’s vital signs and attempt to arouse him. The additional challenge of managing the bevy of friends who wanted to be with the patient in the patrol room but were not allowed due to Sault Ste. Marie Zone’s COVID-19 protocols in place at the time added complexity to the situation. Those friends did not hold back about letting the patrol know their feelings.
Two ambulances with three paramedics arrived fairly quickly and worked with the patrol team to transfer the patient to an EMS gurney and then removed him to the waiting ambulance, all the while continuing to monitor the patient’s vital signs and level of consciousness. The time elapsed between initial receipt of the call to the patrol and the patient departing the resort was 35 minutes.
It was reported that the patient lost vital signs soon after arriving at the Sault Area Hospital. The hospital team was able to restore vital signs. The patient spent Christmas in a coma and remained in the intensive care unit for more than a month. Since then he has gradually made some recovery from his serious head injury. He was transferred to a hospital in Sudbury that specializes in neurological injuries and recovery.
Without the swift actions of the patrol team the outcome for the patient would not have been so positive. The team of one volunteer CSP patroller (Hilary Prouse – a first year patroller on her sixth shift and first incident), one off-duty paramedic and off-duty paid patroller (Paul Hendrie), one off-duty paramedic and on-duty paid patroller (Jason Willet), and the paid ski patrol director and CSP member (Nancy Askin) worked seamlessly as if they had been working together for years. A report in the local press about this incident appeared in early January of this year.
For their expertise in saving the life of their patient, Hilary, Paul, Jason and Nancy were recognized with the John D. Harper Lifesaving Award in 2023. Congratulations to all for a job very well done.
Caption: (l-r) Paul Hendrie, Jason Willet, Nancy Askin and Hilary Prouse (photo supplied)