WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s air ambulance helicopter should return to the skies in January.
A spokesperson for the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society, or STARS, told Global News Tuesday night that the service is expected to resume in early January after being suspended by the province.
“The organization is working with the province to complete the case reviews and make any changes required to improve the helicopter ambulance program in Manitoba. Service is expected to resume in January,” a spokesperson told Global News.
A spokesperson for Manitoba Health Minister Erin Selby couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The province announced on Dec. 2 that the air rescue service was suspended following the death of a patient. The woman, who had suffered a heart attack, was being transported in the STARS chopper from a hospital in southern Manitoba to another hospital in Winnipeg.
Officials said it appeared the woman wasn’t given sufficient oxygen, a problem that had appeared in earlier “critical incidents” involving STARS, which resulted in new protocols. Officials suggested those new protocols were not followed in the Nov. 28 flight after which the patient died. It’s not clear what new changes are being made that will allow STARS service to resume.
On Monday, the fire chief in La Broquerie, a rural area south of Winnipeg, expressed concern about the lack of an air rescue helicopter after the death of a teen in a snowmobiling accident near Marchand on Saturday.
“I’m not the professional that’s going to say that STARS would have saved his life, but I cannot believe during the worst season for crash trauma that STARS program is grounded,” Alain Nadeau told Global News.
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