“It goes fast. You have to be ready and like last minute plans,” summarizes the health expert. They also need a valid passport, be bilingual and have received training from Helico Secours, a relatively new non-profit solidarity cooperative in Quebec.
It offers a helicopter evacuation service as well as transport between hospitals. We think of snowmobilers stuck in the woods or adventurers who have a mishap. Helico Secours also offers the escort flight service, explains operations manager François Rivard. “So these are people who don’t need to be brought back on a stretcher, but who need help getting back home. We often deal with insurance companies.”
Because the CTAQ makes its staff available, Charles Marcil is the third in a few months to fly abroad with a few hours’ notice.
“We had a man who had a motorcycle accident in the US and then a woman who broke her arm in São Paulo, Brazil. “The last one was a woman with breathing problems who was in Orlando, Florida,” explains the operations manager.
In Jonquière, 25 paramedics were trained by Helico Secours. Every day one of them is on call to carry out transfers within Quebec, and some have expressed interest in assignments abroad.
Deploy your System D
For Charles Marcil, the work was very different. The paramedic flew to Orlando and immediately went to the lady’s bedside, who was in her hotel room after a hospital stay. “I chatted with her as soon as I arrived to build a relationship of trust. I then went to my hotel for the night and we left around lunchtime the next day. A driver was waiting to take us to the airport.”
He explains that this is a situation that is treated with less urgency. It is more about reassuring the person, accompanying them on their travels and helping them while they are in another country. “The flights are booked and I was responsible for transporting them through the airport and managing their belongings. Since I have traveled a lot and speak English well, I felt very comfortable. I took her home to Quebec and made sure she got settled there.
Will he accept if the situation arises again? “Absolutely!”
Its director, Éric Tremblay, adds that this type of intervention requires a good sense of organization and a lot of ingenuity.
Her colleague Myriam Gaudreault was sent to São Paulo. She drove six hours to Montreal airport, then an 11-hour flight and 90-minute bus ride to finally arrive at her destination. She had to conduct a medical examination of the patient to ensure she was safe to return. It was therefore she who then confirmed the transport reservations. In Brazil you can get by well in Spanish, but since the official language is Portuguese, Google Translate was very helpful, she says.
The director of the CTAQ, Éric Tremblay, explains that his job is to rearrange the schedule to relieve the burden on the employee who has to leave. In August last year the situation was exceptional as Helico Secours called them twice in the same week.
There is also temporary help for the people of Schefferville on the north coast. “From August 17th to October 17th we provided them with paramedics because they had departures and had to find new ones. So we have people flying out of Sept-Îles or Quebec every week with Air Inuit. “It’s a logistics that we’re not used to juggling,” explains Mr. Tremblay with great calm.
Helico Secours has been in operation since March 2022. Its bases are in Saint-Honoré and Saint-Hubert, emphasizes François Rivard. In addition to the escort service, the cooperative also offers emergency helicopter rescue, searches with the RECCO detector and support for relatives. “This service is new and we are proud of it. These are spouses or relatives who must go to the bedside of the person being treated in the hospital. For example, if you are in Saguenay and your partner is in Abitibi, we will be there to get you there safely,” explains François Rivard.