Poor reception delays emergency services

A paramedic was forced to hike and take a quad into an accident scene near Little Philion Lake after downed trees blocked the ambulance from taking the road.

“Our ground crew responded to the area with Waskesiu RCMP where on arrival they determined they were unable to get to the location because of the downed trees,” said Corey Ecarnot, operations manager for La Ronge Ambulance.

He was the on-call manager that assisted with the ground transportation and organized the air evacuation of a 19-year-old male who was struck by a falling tree during a storm.

When one paramedic headed into the scene, the other found a place with good radio reception to explain the situation.

Once radio communication could be reached it was determined they couldn’t go by road then air evacuation was set up, said Ecarnot.

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“Two paramedics and two fire fighters were sent to the scene to assist with the evacuation of the patient, but upon arrival to the scene the patient was pronounced deceased because of his injuries,” he said.

The trip to the site would have taken about an hour and a half by ambulance, but because of the blocked road, it was around two hours before the paramedic reached the cabin, Ecarnot said.

“Because of the poor services our information was very limited, we didn’t have great information on what had fully occurred, in that we didn’t know the roads were down until we were on scene.”

He said because of this lack of information, they couldn't have gotten there any sooner.

See related:

– Man dead after being struck by tree

ahill@panow.com