Colville crash highlights need for emergency tools

The band manager of Colville Lake says a serious accident last week shows his community needs better emergency medical equipment.

Joseph Kochon says two people suffered major neck and internal injuries when the all-terrain vehicle they were riding in crashed. However, there was no stretcher to carry the injured, nor were there neck braces or an oxygen mask to help them breathe.

"The problem in Colville Lake is that we don't have any life-saving equipment here," he says. "Like for oxygen, that type of stuff. In cases of spinal injuries, they didn't have any stretchers here to transport patients. There's nothing here in Colville Lake, which is very sad."

Kochon says two of the victims in the ATV crash were flown to Inuvik. He says the doctor on the medevac had to borrow a stretcher from the community's recreation director to transport one patient to the plane. A bed sheet was used as a brace for the neck injury.

"These are things that are really needed here in Colville Lake," he says. "Maybe, if they're going to stall or wait for budget, we may be able to try to find ways to buy it ourselves. It's very important that we have some modern life saving equipment here."

Kochon says the community has been lobbying health and government officials for a number of years for emergency equipment. Minister of Health Michael Miltenberger was in Colville recently and agreed to work on the problem.

While nothing's happened yet, he says it's the first time a health minister made a trip into the community, so there's hope something can be done.