LA RONGE, Sask. — Medevac paramedic Gage Killam has seen it all when it comes to providing medical emergency services to people in this northern town and the nearby communities of Air Ronge, Wadin Bay, and Sucker River.
He is part of La Ronge EMS, which coordinates all emergency services with Rise Air’s Medevac team, and they celebrated their 30th year of partnership in helping residents of northern communities.
Killam, during Rise Air’s celebration of their partnership on Wednesday, Aug. 26, said he has spent seven of the nine years of his paramedic career in La Ronge, which he added was a rewarding experience helping residents about a four-hour drive north of Saskatoon, and 240 kilometres south of Prince Albert.
He said the service they provide and the work they do is unique: it is urban in style, especially in terms of the call volumes they have to respond to, but in a more rural lifestyle, where they get to fly and assist northern Saskatchewan residents in their times of need.
“The service we provide allows us to go to places far from Saskatoon and in completely remote areas to give residents the same medical service they need, as anybody in the south would get. We get them to a place where they need to be, in Saskatoon or Prince Albert,” said Killam.
Killam said most of the emergency calls they respond to are trauma-related, including sports injuries and accidents involving all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles, due to the terrain in some areas of La Ronge and neighbouring areas.
“We have seen all kinds of stuff. It's mostly medical-related calls, whether cardiac or gastrointestinal. Nothing specific really stands out. It's a very wide variety of calls in this part of the province,” said Killam.
He said they also assisted with first aid and flying patients down south through Rise Air’s Medevac during last year’s wildfires, in addition to their ground emergency services in La Ronge, in coordination with other EMS teams, especially in Saskatoon.
Killam added that La Ronge EMS’ goal is to get off the ground within an hour of dispatch receiving the call, and depending on where they are flying to, they can get there in 15 minutes or within one hour.
Making a difference
For Aleksy Berube, who has been a pilot for seven years in Saskatchewan, flying medical evacuation missions was more than a job. It was a chance to help people get to medical care.
Berube spent about a year flying a Beechcraft King Air out of La Ronge for Rise Air’s medevac service, an experience he describes as unlike everyday flying because plans could change at any time, and pilots faced different weather conditions.
“Just the flying means more. You can save a life, or you can help someone get better sooner. So it’s nice to know I made a difference,” said Berube, who experienced taking off and landing from gravel and short airstrips in northern Saskatchewan while transporting patients who needed medical treatment.
He noted that working in medevac services involved transporting people who were hurt, sick or required better medical equipment and care. The nature of medevac flying also meant the work could be mentally and technically challenging.
Berube said missions could involve patients with broken bones, older people needing care, or people whose illnesses required access to specialized medical facilities, and that the northern bases, including La Ronge and Stony Rapids, allowed Rise Air to respond to northern communities.
He has since moved to Saskatoon through an internal opportunity with Rise Air, where he now flies passenger charter and cargo services. The move gives him experience on larger aircraft and allows him to take on a different challenge.
Rise Air operates aircraft that include the Beechcraft 1900, ATR 42 and ATR 72. In charter operations, Berube said, pilots transport workers travelling north and south for work, while cargo flights provide another important service to northern communities.
Despite the change, Berube said he misses medevac flying, particularly its unpredictability and demanding schedule. Unlike charter work, which he described as more of a “nine-to-five job,” medevac operations run around the clock, with shifts potentially beginning at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m.
“I do miss the challenge a lot. It’s challenging on the mentality, and just the flying,” said Berube, who added that pilots flying in northern communities need to learn to adapt as they will contend with changing conditions throughout the seasons.
Berube plans to continue building his flight hours in his current role and eventually return to northern operations as a captain. For him, the goal is not simply to advance his career but to return to flying where the outcome can directly impact the communities he serves.
