Meet the Paramedics in Helicopters Saving BC’s Resource Workers

The helicopter’s wake whips at the April alpine meadow as two paramedics are hoisted to the ground. A logging foreman waves them over and points to a body visible at the bottom of a steep rocky hill. …These are members of Technical Evacuation Advanced Aero Medical, or TEAAM, and by scaling down the hill to bring a high level of medical care to their patient they have done what no other paramedics in British Columbia can do. Under the current model BC Ambulance Service, or BCAS, paramedics are banned from putting themselves in dangerous situations and work with search and rescue teams to transfer patients from hazardous spaces into paramedic care. But search and rescue teams rarely have advanced medical caregivers at their disposal; and neither organization is mandated to answer calls for injured workers in remote job sites in BC.