Province's Air Ambulance Surpasses 1,000th Mission Mark

Nova Scotia's air ambulance helicopter completed mission 1,001 this afternoon, transporting a patient from St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.

The Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society, the non-profit organization that operates the air medical transport program for the Department of Health, began flying missions in June 1996. Since then, the organization has transported children, critically ill and injured adults, and expectant mothers at risk from across the Maritimes to hospital in Halifax.

"I want to pass on my congratulations and best wishes to the air rescue society's air medical flight crews and pilots on behalf of all Nova Scotians," said Health Minister Jim Smith. "This service means so much to the families and friends of loved ones who are ill or injured and need a high level of care at one of the tertiary care facilities in Halifax."

The success of the air medical transport program relies on the teamwork of ground ambulance paramedics and first responders across Nova Scotia, as well as the communications paramedics who dispatch and then help coordinate the arrival and departure of the air ambulance.

Since starting the service, the air medical flight crews have transported babies barely hours old, to a 98-year-old patient last year. The air ambulance has landed in woods, cow pastures and on highways to bring injured patients to hospital.