Mission Ready Podcast

00:00:01:28 – 00:00:33:19
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Before we start, a word of caution. As you know, STARS provides pre-hospital care for critically ill and injured patients who have sustained severe trauma or debilitating illnesses. It’s what we do. As such, some of the details in this podcast may be difficult for some listeners. The STARS mission being explored this season involves graphic descriptions of physical injuries to a youth. Psychological impacts are also detailed. The patients, family, and supporters have generously allowed us to tell this story as a personalized insight into STARS.

00:00:33:21 – 00:01:07:05
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And for that, we are genuinely grateful. The community, and everyone else who was involved, welcomed us with open arms to help us tell this story. Having spent time with about 20 people researching it and recording interviews on the phone, virtually, in studio, and right at the scene of the incident, we can tell you this: our conversations were raw and candid, and as such, some of the details uncomfortable. For this podcast, we’ve endeavoured to tell the story accurately without being too sensational. Still, listener discretion is advised.

00:01:07:07 – 00:01:43:11
Alex: This scene was very traumatic because I had never seen anybody eaten by a lawnmower that way. You can see, like, the whole blades were on top of the kid, and the only visible part of his body was the head and one shoulder. I don’t remember if it was left or right, but… And based on the people he was around, they said that basically his body stopped the machine. So you can imagine the severity of the injuries that a body can, you know, get from those blades turning to make the whole thing stop.

00:01:43:13 – 00:01:58:16
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Welcome to Mission Ready, presented by ARC Resources. This STARS podcast breaks down in detail one mission each season to give you a stronger understanding of how we provide critical care anywhere, and what happens before and after the mission. I’m Deborah Tetley.

00:01:58:18 – 00:02:15:25
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And I’m Lyle Aspinall. In Season 2, we’re analyzing an emergency response to a traumatic incident where a teenager was run over by an industrial-sized riding lawnmower in Laird, Saskatchewan. This is Episode 3: STARS on Scene.

00:02:15:28 – 00:02:29:08
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Last week, you met several of the very first people who responded to 16-year-old Draidyn Wollmann becoming trapped under the cutting deck of an industrial riding lawnmower. First responder Kevin Burrell was one of them and wasn’t sure Draidyn would make it.

00:02:29:11 – 00:02:38:01
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And so when you hear on a call that you’re attending that STARS is on its way, or it might be required, what goes through your mind?

00:02:38:03 – 00:02:45:11
Kevin Burrell: First thing that goes through my mind is, oh, boy, this must be serious. They wouldn’t come out if it’s not.

00:02:45:13 – 00:02:56:07
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: The STARS crew, responding from Saskatoon, 60 km away, included flight paramedic Glen Pilon, a 30-year veteran of his trade, and flight nurse Bailey Sinclair.

00:02:56:09 – 00:03:00:02
Bailey: I think Draidyn’s call will always stand out for me.

00:03:00:04 – 00:03:04:09
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: This was Bailey’s first solo shift with STARS after many weeks of intense training.

00:03:04:16 – 00:03:34:11
Bailey: I’ve never been in an experience like that where somebody is still actively trapped under a lawnmower. Also, I think it’s always just different and hits a little harder when it’s a kid. It’s just more emotional, I think. Like, he’s such a young person. He’s got his whole life ahead of him. You just want what’s best for him. And I think you just always think and feel for that person and his family and what they’re going to be going through in the upcoming weeks, months, years.

00:03:34:13 – 00:03:55:15
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Bailey wasn’t the only new STARS team member to be involved in this call. Almost 700 km away in Calgary, Shae Evans was relatively new in her role as an emergency communications specialist on the critical patient side of the STARS Emergency Link Centre. She had already fielded hundreds of industry service calls for STARS vigilant on the other side of the room. But the logistically challenging world of critical patient coordination was a fresh start.

00:03:55:17 – 00:04:29:04
Shae Evans: Yeah, so I (was doing) what we call is logistics. So, whoever is on logistics is in charge of the helicopters. So, we’re the ones on the radios pre-alerting, dispatching. We’re the ones that have charge of getting the landing zone done. So, whether that be fire, RCMP, or if it’s really rural and we can’t get fire and RCMP, maybe the EMS truck has to do a landing zone. So, you got to make sure that there’s somewhere for your your team to land safely. You’re giving all the information to the medical crew. You’re basically the only, like, you’re the person answering the radio. So, any questions that need to be passed on, you’re doing that. It’s all about safety for the crew.

00:04:29:06 – 00:04:41:13
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Several members from the STARS Emergency Link Centre were involved in this call, including Lindsay Coates, who was handling the initial intake. Shae still remembers reading Lindsay’s notes as the STARS medical team in Saskatoon was brought into the call.

00:04:41:16 – 00:04:56:21
Shae Evans: What the note said was, he was wrapped up in the lawnmower with blades sticking — multiple blades — through his chest. So instantly you’re like, oh my, yeah. Like, that’s serious. And you know, you call the crew and they instantly, like, you barely get a few words out, they’re like, yeah, let’s go. And it was a beautiful summer day.

00:04:56:21 – 00:05:13:22
Co-host Deborah Tetley: They, like, checked the weather and they, I think, accepted dispatch in, like, two minutes. It was crazy. And yeah, instantly– I don’t think Lindsay got more than a couple words in before they’re like, yeah, let’s go. I don’t need to hear anything more. Text us the rest of the details. And they were out in 10 minutes, up in the sky on their way.

00:05:13:22 – 00:05:16:03
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE: STAR 11, Link Centre, go ahead.

00:05:16:05 – 00:05:20:19
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – Glen Pilon: Skids up, outbound to the scene call in Laird. Four souls on board.

00:05:20:22 – 00:05:31:24
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE: STAR 11, roger, Link Centre, I copy. Up with four souls, outbound Laird area scene call. We have Laird fire on provincial fire for your landing zone.

00:05:31:26 – 00:05:46:24
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Glen and Bailey were already deep into preparation mode. You’ll recall they had received an early alert from their off-duty manager, Daniel Kobylak, who was also a STARS flight paramedic and a volunteer first responder in his community not far from Laird, where Draidyn was fighting for life.

00:05:46:27 – 00:05:55:11
Bailey: Glen and I spoke about it. We obviously knew as soon as we got the information that we were going to go on this call, and we wanted to help this kid out.

00:05:55:14 – 00:06:05:12
Co-host Deborah Tetley: On the way out the door, they grabbed medications and other items, including a cooler containing two units of type O-Negative blood, and they secured it safely in place at the back of the helicopter.

00:06:05:14 – 00:07:01:12
Bailey: So, on the way to the call we tend to do a lot of pre-planning. We talk about different differential diagnoses, different things that we might need to do for treatment, different things that might be going wrong with the person. We prepare some medications. We prepared some upper blood tubing in case we need to administer some blood. We prepared some pain medication. Just a few things. It was a very quick flight. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare. Just as we were kind of arriving on scene, we still really didn’t have any other information. We were circling for a landing, and I remember somebody from the ground calling up to us. And like, that doesn’t generally happen that often except for landing zone information. And I remember somebody calling up to us trying to give us more information. I believe it was at that time they had told us that the lawnmower was still on Draidyn, and that things were not looking good.

00:07:01:14 – 00:07:13:22
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Let’s take a minute to tell you how Glen and Bailey got here. Glen’s been a paramedic for about 30 years. He joined STARS just a couple years after the Saskatchewan government invited us to establish a base in Saskatoon.

00:07:13:25 – 00:07:50:26
Glen Pilon: So I was with Saskatchewan Air Ambulance when STARS started up in Saskatchewan 10 years ago. And for the first couple of years, I watched to see how it unfolded in Saskatchewan. And their hangar was right beside our hangar, by the airplanes. And so I would go over and talk with all of my colleagues that I knew, because some of them would work with air ambulance, and some of them would work with STARS. And, they told me, why don’t you have a seat in the helicopter here, Glen? See how it feels. And I sat in the helicopter…

00:07:50:26 – 00:07:51:28
Co-host Deborah Tetley: And how did it feel?

00:07:52:00 – 00:07:57:21
Glen Pilon: Oh, I put my application in that that evening. Yeah. And here I am.

00:07:57:23 – 00:08:09:09
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And what about Bailey? Well, critical care nursing runs in her family, so it was a natural fit to spend the first six years of her career as a registered nurse in emergency medicine and in an ICU before applying for a job at STARS.

00:08:09:11 – 00:08:19:24
Bailey: I thought it was a very neat combination of both the pre-hospital and in-hospital environment, and I just wanted to be able to help people where they needed, to help them both.

00:08:19:27 – 00:08:22:25
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Okay, so they both like their role, but are they good at it?

00:08:22:27 – 00:08:45:19
Glen Pilon: Yeah, this is the one thing that I really love about STARS is you have six different bases, all across Western Canada, and you can plop anyone into any position, and they are trained exactly the same. So, it doesn’t matter the name on the on the chest. You can work with anyone because we are trained exactly the same at STARS.

00:08:45:19 – 00:09:26:07
Bailey: We’re so lucky in our training as nurses and paramedics. We are cross-trained, so I am trained to do the same things that paramedics train to do. The paramedics can do the same things I can do. We tend to stick more to our strengths, but the fact that we have the same education and the same learning experience is so beneficial to us. And like Glen said, like, I work in all three of the provinces as a pool nurse; I can jump on a helicopter in Grand Prairie, I know where everything’s located. And I know that the person I’m working with, even if I’ve never worked with them before, I know we’re going to have a good call because we’ve been trained the exact same way, and STARS training is just one of the best experiences and probably some of the best training out there.

00:09:26:10 – 00:09:39:05
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Every new member of our clinical team must first pass the rigorous STARS Critical Care and Transport Medicine Academy, or STARS Academy for short. That intense education was fresh in Bailey’s mind when Draidyn’s call came in.

00:09:39:07 – 00:10:08:10
Bailey: I had just finished my training about three weeks prior. So, to work for STARS, you have to do some pretty intensive training. It’s about a 20-week program involving a lot of in-person training as well as online training, lots of simulation and a lot of ride-along shifts. So, we are provided this very excellent training, and then all of a sudden you’re placed into the world on your own and you no longer have that person there to help you when you need it.

00:10:08:12 – 00:10:17:22
Co-host Deborah Tetley: They were going to have to use all their training on this mission. As they approached with limited information, every crew member was assessing what they were about to face.

00:10:17:24 – 00:10:50:15
Glen Pilon: I picture in my mind, you know, just a push-behind lawnmower with a blade underneath it and how a 16-year-old can get underneath one of those. But you fly out and you get more information coming in that it’s a commercial-grade or industrial-grade lawnmower. And he’s underneath that. And we also got word that the blade was still in his chest and that the first responders who were on scene were going to wait for us to get there until– before they removed the lawnmower off of him.

00:10:50:17 – 00:11:00:05
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: STARS helicopter missions always involve two pilots: one to focus on flying, the other to focus on safety and communication logistics. Yves Bolduc was flying this mission.

00:11:00:08 – 00:11:18:12
Yves Bolduc: What I remember is they landed us fairly close, you know, to the scene. We’re just in a field, you know. There was a road, you know, right behind the helicopter, and there was the following field that was pretty much beside the arena where the actual scene was.

00:11:18:14 – 00:11:33:01
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Beside him was safety pilot Alex Parra. After 10 years at STARS, this would be one of Alex’s last shifts before beginning a new flying career overseas. We caught up with him through Zoom a year later, and the details of the mission were still clear in his memory.

00:11:33:03 – 00:12:17:05
Alex: This scene was very traumatic because I had never seen anybody eaten by a lawnmower that way. You can see, like, the whole blades were on top of the kid, and the only visible part of his body was the head and one shoulder. I don’t remember if it was left or right, but… And based on the people he was around, they said that basically his body stopped the machine. So you can imagine the severity of the injuries that a body can, you know, get from those blades turning to make the whole thing stop. And obviously, immediately you think, oh, this is crazy. This is, this is something serious.

00:12:17:07 – 00:12:22:20
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And now, a quick word from our Season 2 sponsor.

00:12:22:23 – 00:12:58:01
Co-host Deborah Tetley: As Canada’s third largest natural gas producer and the largest producer of condensate, ARC Resources is proud to play an important role in the responsible development of Canada’s energy resources in delivering those resources. Safety is the number one priority, always, and it’s that core value that makes ARC’s partnership with STARS a natural fit. It’s our shared goal to ensure that everyone arrives home safely at the end of the day. Learn more about how ARC is leading the way for safe and responsible energy development at arcresources.com.

00:12:58:04 – 00:13:06:11
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Welcome back. Moments after the STARS helicopter landed in the nearby green space, flight nurse Bailey Sinclair took stock of what she saw.

00:13:06:14 – 00:14:18:05
Bailey: So, at that point, we’re already there. We can see the scene. There’s all these people, all these first responders. I swear most of the community was out there helping Draidyn. Quite the amazing response from the small town first responder group. So, very good on them. I remember landing on the scene and, like, our training is absolutely incredible. It is the most in-depth, best learning experience I’ve ever, ever had. But being a nurse who works in a hospital, you’re not really exposed to that pre-hospital environment. So, I think I had only done a few scene calls in my learning experience, and to walk up in a call where the lawnmower was still on Draidyn, and all you could see was his head and his arm sticking out from under the lawnmower, that’s like an experience I cannot describe. It’s just, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Like I said, they do the best to prepare you as much as they can, but nothing prepares you for that. I remember getting over to the patient. One of the EMS providers had walked over and kind of given us an update on what they had done, where they were at.

00:14:18:07 – 00:14:20:14
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Glen remembers that conversation too.

00:14:20:16 – 00:14:32:07
Glen Pilon: One of the paramedics from the ground ambulance came over, and we knew each other from previous calls and working together, and he said, Glen, this is very bad. This is really bad.

00:14:32:10 – 00:14:38:24
Co-host Deborah Tetley: That ground paramedic was Gilbert Maraboto with Rosthern EMS, who you met in the previous episode.

00:14:38:27 – 00:14:57:10
Gilbert Maraboto: When they landed, I met them at the landing site and I talk about, like, with Glen —I worked with Glen before, in the ambulance; he used to work with us in Rosthern too — and I remember sitting there, like, no, this is bad. This is very bad. I don’t know if he’s going to survive. As soon as we remove those blades, I’m pretty sure he won’t survive.

00:14:57:12 – 00:15:23:19
Glen Pilon: Yeah, it was really tough. And, so, when we walked over to where he was, you could see this large, industrial-size lawnmower, and he was completely underneath the blades of the lawnmower lying on his back with only his head and his right arm sticking out from underneath the lawnmower. And he was trapped under there, basically.

00:15:23:19 – 00:15:53:18
Bailey: They explained to us they were ready to lift this lawnmower off at any time, but they were waiting for us because they were worried that he might not make it once they lifted the lawnmower off of him. So, we got over to Draidyn. He was kind of in and out of consciousness, just gasping for air. He had an IV in the one arm that was out from the lawnmower. So immediately I started giving him blood.

00:15:53:21 – 00:16:04:06
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Let’s pause here for just a second. Remember that cooler of blood Deb mentioned earlier? The one Glen and Bailey grabbed before heading out on this mission? The story of how that cooler came to be is an interesting one.

00:16:04:08 – 00:16:13:21
Glen Pilon: When I started here, we never carried any blood at all. And then because of a patient that required blood, initiatives were taken so that we would carry blood on board.

00:16:13:23 – 00:16:44:10
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Back in 2012, a woman named Carrie Derin was critically injured in an off-road vehicle mishap. At that point in STARS’ history, we weren’t carrying blood on board the helicopter, but Carrie desperately needed it. She was being cared for by a Regina STARS crew. They made a rapid pit stop at a small-town hospital to get a unit of blood started on her before continuing on to a trauma centre. That proved to be life-saving. Now, Carrie lived and became a strong STARS ally, and the mission spurred some deeper thought for Saskatchewan provincial director Darcy McKay.

00:16:44:12 – 00:17:20:21
Darcy McKay: I was back at the base listening to this call and I thought, man, we’re taking time away from that patient, and we’re also taking that blood away from that hospital. And I thought, there’s got to be a better way. And so I just started looking at things, how can we have blood on board? And we looked at a variety of things. And then I came across these credo boxes that they actually used in the Iraq War, on the front lines. And I thought, maybe we can do something like that here. And so we had the lab transfusions from Regina General Hospital and Canadian Blood Services and the ministry on board. And, yeah, we made it happen. And it’s kind of cascaded across all of our bases. It’s awesome. It’s truly made a difference in patients’ lives.

00:17:20:23 – 00:17:25:26
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Well, and it’s not just every base at STARS that carries it now. We paved the road for others as well, didn’t we?

00:17:25:26 – 00:17:39:18
Darcy McKay: Correct. It’s across North America, and actually, yeah– I’m going to say North America, yeah. So, lots of places are copying the model and that’s fantastic. It’s all about patient care.

00:17:39:21 – 00:17:51:28
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Back in Laird, STARS has just landed and the medical response is underway on Draidyn. With time running short, Glen and Bailey dig deep into their extensive training and do everything they can to give him a fighting chance.

00:17:52:00 – 00:18:21:29
Bailey: When we arrived on scene, I had that initial shock moment of, wow, this is nothing I’ve ever experienced before. This is scary, this is bad. But then I think that’s the time when your training kicks in and you know what you need to do. Like I said, that training is very intense, it is very thorough. And we practice and practice and practice, and that’s why we’re good at what we do. And that’s why we can turn it on when somebody needs it the most.

00:18:22:01 – 00:19:38:22
Glen Pilon: Yeah, he is on ground level, he’s on his back, he’s looking up to the sky, and he has his right arm sticking out from underneath the lawnmower, right beside the wheel. And just from his neck up is all that we can see, really. And so we set up right at the head and we get all of our equipment out, we get all of our intubation equipment out, we get our bag valve mask, we get our oxygen out. And he had what we call, like, agonal breaths, like a very difficult breathing. And you try and palpate his radial pulse down by his wrist, and you can’t find one. And you try and palpate a brachial pulse by his elbow, and you can’t find one. And you can get your hand in to palpate the pulse around his neck, and he’s got a very weak pulse at his neck. And from my 30 years of experience, when somebody is trapped like that and very hypotensive and with difficulty breathing, you know that they only have about 10 minutes left to live. So, that was tough. That was really hard. Sorry. I kind of get a little emotional at these things,

00:19:38:22 – 00:19:46:11
Co-host Deborah Tetley: No, don’t apologize. Yeah, I appreciate that’s probably just one of the hardest calls to go on.

00:19:46:13 – 00:20:01:27
Glen Pilon: Yeah. Pediatric calls are some of the toughest calls to deal with because they have their whole life ahead of them, right?

00:20:02:00 – 00:20:06:14
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: As Bailey and Glen set to work, pilots Yves and Alex helped them wherever they could.

00:20:06:21 – 00:20:17:12
Yves Bolduc: The moment we land at any scenes, we become support, you know, to our guys who are trying, you know, to save a life. And we’ll do everything else that we can, you know, just to support them properly.

00:20:17:18 – 00:20:32:18
Co-host Deborah Tetley: I’m always fascinated by that. You know, you’re not just flying the helicopter and then standing there doing nothing, right? Like you really are a part of this life-saving mission in more ways than getting the helicopter there. Can you talk a little bit more about that? What sort of things were you doing exactly that day?

00:20:32:20 – 00:21:27:28
Yves Bolduc: I’m just going to be right in there, you know, to try to help them out and whatnot. But at the same time, it’s not push people around. Not at all. By the time you get to a scene, if EMS is already there, if fire is already there, they already have people that have been assigned specific duties at the scene themselves, right? So we become, you know, again, that support from behind, because we have some specific, you know, equipment, you know, that only STARS, you know, carries. And because of that, that’s– the type of running around that we’re doing around that day is, can you get us this bag because EMS did not have it, nor any of the firefighters had that type of equipment. And because we’re just a bit parked a little bit further away for security reasons, obviously, you know, we, you know, we’re there just to run back and forth. So I remember Alex, seeing Alex running back and forth, or I was running back and forth.

00:21:28:00 – 00:21:31:17
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Alex was spurred on by the look he saw in Glen and Bailey’s faces.

00:21:31:23 – 00:21:58:03
Alex Parra: I don’t remember exactly what was the situation of the kid at that point, but I immediately, in my mind, and by the signs that the crew kind of make with the eyes, we were– okay, this is serious. So I start running to the helicopter and I went ahead of the game and I started bringing them stuff. I brought the blood, I remember I ran to the helicopter probably four or five times to bring equipment as the crew was instructing me to bring stuff, you know.

00:21:58:06 – 00:22:15:21
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Helping out at traumatic scenes comes naturally for many of our pilots. A large portion of them have military experience, which can often prepare them for the types of dynamic and potentially distressing situations inherent in STARS missions. For Alex, before his decade at STARS, he had actually flown helicopters for the Colombian Air Force.

00:22:15:23 – 00:22:51:29
Alex Parra: Obviously, everybody knows, Colombia, we have gone through a conflict, internal conflict that actually has developed a lot of violence in the country. And all the institutions, government institutions, are trying to control this situation. And Air Force is one of them. As you be part of the Air Force, we were doing missions of medevac all the time. We were doing, you know, military missions. And you get exposed to seeing things that you’re normally not supposed to see.

00:22:52:01 – 00:22:58:01
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: So, when he joined STARS, it came naturally to support his medical colleagues however he could. This mission was no exception.

00:22:58:04 – 00:23:54:03
Alex Parra: I remember on the ground opening, I think, Bailey’s — It was one of the first missions that Bailey did after she finished her training. And for her, I could see on her face that she was really, you know, into the mission. And, because that’s what she was trained for. And Glen as well. Glen is a great paramedic with a lot of experience at STARS. And I remember myself opening bags, instructed by Bailey or by Glen when they said, Alex, give me this, give me that, like, I mean, all the bags that we have. And I just, you know, not even thinking, opening, setting up things. I remember opening the blood. I was the one that opened it, the blood cooler, cut the seals, take the unit out and, you know. And that helps a lot because a lot of the times they need that extra set of hands.

00:23:54:05 – 00:24:04:15
Co-host Deborah Tetley: One very important step had already been taken by a ground ambulance crew. This was starting a large bore IV line in Draidyn’s arm. Bailey explains this.

00:24:04:17 – 00:24:45:20
Bailey: So when we got to the scene, Draidyn had a large IV in his anticubital, or the kind of crease of his elbow there. The large IV lines are very helpful for us when we need to administer products really quickly. So, if you think of a garden hose, the bigger the garden hose, the more water flow you get through it. The smaller the garden hose, the less flow you get through it. So that works similar as an intravenous line. The bigger the IV, the faster we can give that blood product. So, the first responders on scene really helped us out by getting that large IV. And I think we were able to get the first unit of blood in before the lawnmower was even lifted off of Draidyn.

00:24:45:22 – 00:24:51:24
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Kayla Burrell was among several first responders helping at the scene. She had an important job.

00:24:51:27 – 00:25:31:25
Kayla Burrell: You know, at the end, I was holding the blood bag so that the blood could start flowing to Draidyn. And one of my fellow firefighters asked, Do you, like, want me to take over? Can I hold it? That was when I was like, No, I’m good. Like, this is– I wanted to do more. Like, this is all I can do right now is hold this blood. And, you just, you want to, you want to do more, you want to fix him right there. And, so, if that’s all I could do was hold that blood, that was important to me. And knowing that was critical, that his life was… he was fading.

00:25:31:27 – 00:25:35:03
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Next time on Mission Ready:

00:25:35:05 – 00:25:55:12
Glen Pilon: And so we go ahead and make our intubation attempt. When I go to put the blade in, the top of the laryngoscope handle where the cord is, it hits the lawnmower and it is stuck there, and I’m not able to lift up in order to see the epiglottis that I need to see.

00:25:55:15 – 00:26:03:19
Bailey: And I was kind of thinking, what is going to happen once we lift this lawnmower off of him?

00:26:03:21 – 00:26:08:25
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Mission Ready, presented by ARC Resources, is produced in-house by me, Deborah Tetley.

00:26:08:27 – 00:26:14:20
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And me, Lyle Aspinall. Watch video clips from this season at stars.ca/missionready.

00:26:14:23 – 00:26:31:12
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Mission Ready contains original theme music by Kaiya Gamble, whose dad was a long time STARS pilot and whose mom was once a transport physician. Check her out at kaiyagamble.com. Please rate and review Mission Ready wherever you found it, and be sure to tell your friends about it. Also, check out Season 1.

00:26:31:14 – 00:26:37:26
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Want to be a STARS ally? Get involved and support our mission by visiting stars.ca. Until next time, thanks for listening.

00:00:01:28 – 00:00:33:13
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Before we start, a word of caution. As you know, STARS provides pre-hospital care for critically ill and injured patients who have sustained severe trauma or debilitating illnesses. It’s what we do. As such, some of the details in this podcast may be difficult for some listeners. The STARS mission being explored this season involves graphic descriptions of physical injuries to a youth. Psychological impacts are also detailed. The patients, family, and supporters have generously allowed us to tell this story as a personalized insight into STARS.

00:00:33:16 – 00:01:07:18
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And for that, we are genuinely grateful. The community, and everyone else who was involved, welcomed us with open arms to help us tell this story. Having spent time with about 20 people researching it and recording interviews on the phone, virtually, in studio, and right at the scene of the incident, we can tell you this: our conversations were raw and candid, and as such, some of the details uncomfortable. For this podcast, we’ve endeavoured to tell the story accurately without being too sensational. Still, listener discretion is advised.

00:01:07:21 – 00:01:28:01
Christine Wollmann: Knowing that I was crying and upset, and then I’m like, all I thought was that, okay, this kid needs me. So I corrected my behaviour. I don’t know how I did it, but I did it. I just did my job with being a first responder and just started treating him as a patient instead of my own kid.

00:01:28:04 – 00:01:35:15
Chris: When I got on scene, you could just see people everywhere, and I just jumped right into helping out with whatever I could.

00:01:35:18 – 00:01:44:06
Kayla Burrell: We first responders are not machines. We are people just like you. What drives us is a passion for helping people and being there for our community.

00:01:44:08 – 00:01:59:09
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Welcome to Mission Ready, presented by ARC Resources. This STARS podcast breaks down in detail one mission each season to give you a stronger understanding of how we provide critical care anywhere, and what happens before and after the mission. I’m Deborah Tetley.

00:01:59:12 – 00:02:17:04
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And I’m Lyle Aspinall. In Season 2, we’re analyzing an emergency response to a traumatic incident where a teenager was run over by an industrial-sized riding lawnmower in Laird, Saskatchewan. This is Episode 2: First Response.

00:02:17:06 – 00:02:37:07
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: It’s July 19th, 2022, and Draidyn Wollmann, a 16-year-old boy, is still trapped under an industrial lawnmower and fighting for his life. STARS is on the way, and with him right now are EMS, firefighters, RCMP, and first responders. Most of these people are volunteers, just everyday folks helping their communities.

00:02:37:10 – 00:03:04:04
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Draidyn’s mom, Christine, is also there, as are his grandparents. Christine is a first responder and a volunteer firefighter. She learned about the call early on and rushed to the scene, but RCMP kept her from approaching her son as other response personnel did their work. It goes without saying the family is reeling. One of the initial first responders to arrive is Kayla Burrell, who you met in the previous episode.

00:03:04:06 – 00:03:37:07
Kayla Burrell: We first responders are not machines. We are people just like you. Just like you. Just like me. What drives us is a passion for helping people and being here for our community. So, we were trained really well in Waldheim and just had the best leaders and resources to be the best we could be. I think most of us have it under our belt where we can remain calm. You know, our heart’s racing, but you have to, you just have to be calm or you can’t think straight and you can’t use your skills to help.

00:03:37:10 – 00:03:44:24
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Yeah. Staying calm in that kind of environment. Wow. But paint us a picture. When you get to Laird, when you get to Draidyn’s scene, what do you see?

00:03:45:00 – 00:05:41:21
Kayla Burrell: Yeah, it was behind the arena in Laird and just kind of a grassy field area. And there was a pickup truck with, you know, the people who found him, and it was just a mower in the middle with Draidyn fully under. And where we saw, we came up on the right side of the mower, and his head and arm were out on the left side. So, what we thought was, we didn’t see anything when we were first coming up. And that was what’s really scary, you know? But thankfully we came up and, again, I’m adrenaline-rushed, scared because this is really going to test my skills, right? And we want to do right by him. So we walk over. We kind of got some history from the bystanders. How long he thought he’d been there. I made contact right away. “Hi, I’m Kayla Burrell. I’m with the Waldheim first responders. We’re here to help you.” You know, things we ask: How long you’ve been here. What’s your name? You know, I asked, Who’s your mom? Do you know what happened? Or, how long you’ve been here? You know what day it is, what month it is, just to see, you know, how with it he was. And he was. He was talking to me. He knew everything that was going on. What really struck me was that he told me, It’s in my lungs, he said. Like, the blades. He said, It’s in my lungs. And so, you know, we check pulse, we check oxygen. I had to wash the dry blood off his hands with hand sanitizer to get, you know, an oxygen level to read. Then we put oxygen on him right away. And then I continued asking questions, keeping him talking and just aware, because that’s what’s most important to me. Treating for shock, keeping him aware. And, you know, it was a really hot day. So I was concerned about that, you know, and under a hot mower. That, unfortunately, that wasn’t really something we could combat.

00:05:41:24 – 00:06:38:12
Co-host Deborah Tetley: It’s quickly determined that Draidyn urgently needs top-tier critical care, medical supplies, blood transfusions and urgent transport to the closest trauma centre, which is in Saskatoon, more than 60 km away. He need STARS. Shae Evans was working in the STARS Emergency Link Centre, or the ELC, when the call came in. This is our 24-hour communications hub where we not only dispatch our own helicopters and other medical aircraft, we also link pertinent people into calls. This can range from doctors at receiving or sending hospitals to witnesses on the scene, first responders, police, firefighters, and the people we rely on to prepare a safe landing zone for our helicopter. Shae had recently moved from a different position in the ELC, and was just starting to take critical patient calls on her own after months of training. Despite how busy the ELC is and despite how busy summers are, the details of this mission are etched in her memory.

00:06:38:15 – 00:07:29:14
Shae Evans: You know, in the summertime, especially like July, August, our volume just goes up so much. Like, we process probably about 100 calls a day from hospital and to pre-hospital calls. And I still, I remember that call. You know, normally, like, when you have 100 calls a day, you know, they all kind of start to blend. But that was probably one of my very first calls after just recently being signed off. So in the STARS Link Centre, you have six months of precept, so you can’t really take a call by yourself for six months. And they say typically it takes about a year to actually get really comfortable. But that was right after my sign-off and doing logistics too. So, dealing with the helicopter. And so that was really stressful. And then just, yeah, there’s kids calls. Like, anybody who has young kids, that typically takes a huge toll on anybody. You can just feel in the room with a traumatic event and with a kid, you can just feel the, you know, the tension in the room.

00:07:29:14 – 00:07:37:21
Co-host Deborah Tetley: And you talked about room awareness and how the mood in the room changes when it’s a kid. Can you talk a little bit more about that? What did you see? What was the feeling in this case?

00:07:37:23 – 00:07:50:12
Shae Evans: Yeah, I think everybody took a really, like, a deep breath, like, it’s going to be a hard call. But you know, we’re here to do a job and we do our job well up there. And, you know, we take care of ourselves and our family. But yeah, we do our job first.

00:07:50:14 – 00:08:02:29
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Even though the duty crew has already had a heads up that this call might be coming. Shae handled the dispatch, speaking with one of the pilots who will fly the helicopter to Laird: Capt. Alex Parra.

00:08:03:01 – 00:08:07:12
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: STAR 11, Link Centre. You’re on pre-alert for a scene call, 13 nautical miles northwest of Rosthern in Laird.

00:08:07:12 – 00:08:11:01
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Alex Parra: Link Centre, STAR 11 copies, standby, weather.

00:08:11:03 – 00:08:12:17
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: Standing by for weather.

00:08:12:19 – 00:08:16:04
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: The weather was great, so the pilots had no concerns about accepting the mission.

00:08:16:06 – 00:08:22:04
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: Copy, misstion accepted.

00:08:22:07 – 00:08:22:09
ELC: (dispatch tones)

00:08:22:09 – 00:08:26:07
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: STAR 11, Link Centre, you’ve been dispatched to the scene call in the town of Laird.

00:08:26:09 – 00:08:31:00
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Alex Parra: Copy, Link Centre. Dispatched to the scene call, and standby for coordinates.

00:08:31:01 – 00:08:38:06
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: STAR 11, Link Centre, coordinates as follows: 52 43 by 106 35.

00:08:38:09 – 00:08:41:18
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Alex Parra: 52 43 – 106 35.

00:08:41:18 – 00:08:42:20
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: Readback correct .

00:08:42:23 – 00:08:52:19
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: At 3:10 in the afternoon, the STARS helicopter lifted off the ground, carrying flight paramedic Glen Pilon and flight nurse Bailey Sinclair. Alex Parra and Yves Bolduc were the pilots.

00:08:52:21 – 00:08:54:04
ELC: STAR 11, Link Centre, go ahead.

00:08:54:06 – 00:08:58:17
ELC – Glen: Skids up, outbound to the scene call in Laird. Four souls on board.

00:08:58:17 – 00:09:10:11
ELC: STAR 11, roger, Link Centre, I copy. Up with four souls, outbound Laird area scene call. We have Laird fire on provincial fire for your landing zone.

00:09:10:13 – 00:09:25:00
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: No one knows how long Draidyn had been under the mower. At that point, the best estimate said it might have been an hour before he was discovered by his boss, Warren. Time wasn’t on their side. Draidyn was fading, and Kayla could only continue to comfort him.

00:09:25:02 – 00:09:36:21
Kayla Burrell: He was getting slower to talk back. You know, a little more gap time where he’d relax and I’d have to prompt him to stay awake. Promt him and just keep talking.

00:09:36:24 – 00:09:52:23
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Other than monitor his oxygen levels, there wasn’t much anyone could do for Draidyn medically until the mower was removed. Paramedic Gil Maraboto, from nearby Rosthern, set out to determine if it was possible to remove it without causing further damage. He reached his arm under the mower to investigate.

00:09:52:26 – 00:10:44:25
Gil Maraboto: So I put my hand underneath and like, try to see what he refers to, like the pressure on the chest, because I can’t see. So like, well, I can feel it. So I start, like, moving on his abdomen, and it was good, and as soon as I started going up slowly, eventually, like, I feel like that’s something, like, hard, like, oh, the blade, like, it’s, like, oh yeah, the blade is inside his chest. So all the ribs were open on the right side. The blade was, I think, the blades stopped at some point, obviously and was stuck between the ribs and underneath, and everything was open in there, and I felt his arm, like, the first thing, the one other thing, when I keep going, one of– his left arm was, like, in two pieces. Like, okay, that’s not good. And I started to keep going down…

00:10:44:27 – 00:10:53:29
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Gil knew that removing the mower could cause damage, and the crews on the ground were not equipped to respond if Draidyn’s condition deteriorated. He decided to call the STARS doctor.

00:10:54:01 – 00:11:21:15
Gil Maraboto: And so, I told the guys, you know, guys, like, there’s not much we can do. Let me call. Let me call the transport physician. I don’t know what I’m gonna do here because if we remove it right here and we’re by ourselves, I don’t know what we can do. Like, I want to just be sure that STARS is coming and see what we can do, because I don’t, honestly, I don’t know. Like, at this point we can give something for the bleeding and some TXA, and that’s it. There’s not much that can be done, and…

00:11:21:18 – 00:11:29:20
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: He activated his radio and spoke with the Medical Communication and Coordination Centre in Saskatchewan, asking to be connected to the STARS Emergency Link Centre.

00:11:29:22 – 00:11:30:29
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Sharlene Ernst: … Sharlene speaking…

00:11:31:06 – 00:11:35:27
MCCC: Hi, it’s MCC Central. I’ve got a Rosthern EMS attendant on the line regarding that Laird call.

00:11:35:29 – 00:11:39:25
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Sharlene Ernst: Perfect. Send them through and I will link them in with the transport physician.

00:11:39:27 – 00:11:40:11
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Sharlene Ernst: Hello?

00:11:40:15 – 00:11:40:24
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Hi.

00:11:41:01 – 00:11:44:05
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: We have, like, a pretty serious case in here, so…

00:11:44:12 – 00:11:48:08
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Sharlene Ernst: Okay, I’m going to link you in with the transport physician Dr. Oyedokun. One moment.

00:11:48:11 – 00:11:49:16
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: Thank you.

00:11:49:18 – 00:12:21:19
Co-host Deborah Tetley: We’re going to pause for just a second to explain what a transport physician is. STARS uses a physician-led model where doctors oversee care, train crews, and ensure quality control. STARS physicians provide patient care and medical expertise for all missions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they are available to provide timely, consultative advice and guidance to other emergency services as required. These doctors have significant experience treating trauma patients in emergency departments and ICUs.

00:12:21:21 – 00:12:35:18
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: STARS transport physician Dr. Segun Oyedokun was on the phone talking to EMS and firefighters at the scene while the STARS air medical crew was en route. Ground paramedic Gil Maraboto explained the situation.

00:12:35:20 – 00:12:36:00
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Hello.

00:12:36:07 – 00:12:42:12
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Sharlene Ernst: Hey, Dr. Oyedokun, it’s Sharlene again. I’ve got the EMS on scene with the young man that’s trapped under the mower.

00:12:42:14 – 00:12:42:26
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Okay.

00:12:43:03 – 00:12:44:11
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Sharlene Ernst: Thank you. One moment.

00:12:44:14 – 00:12:46:18
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: Hi, this is Gilbert from Rosthern Ambulance.

00:12:46:20 – 00:12:46:23
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Yes.

00:12:46:23 – 00:13:29:07
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: We’re here on the scene with a 16-year-old that got trapped under a riding lawnmower. His left leg is totally, totally wrapped into the blades, and one of the blades is in his chest. So I’m trying to see what would be the best way to take him out from the lawnmower. Do we just remove the lawnmower out and see how bad it is, the blade in his chest? Or we should proceed different in this case? Like, no one can see yet. We only can see the blade, like, loose in, like… The chest is blocking the whole blade. So we’re assuming the blade is inside his chest. And the left leg is completely wrapped around the blade.

00:13:29:07 – 00:13:29:18
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Oh, wow.

00:13:29:21 – 00:13:41:12
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: I’m just waiting for STARS to land here. Yeah, I don’t know how to remove it from the lawnmower without… We have to take it off, like, move the lawnmower back. But I don’t know how much damage we’re going to cause while doing that.

00:13:41:15 – 00:13:44:01
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Is he conscious and breathing?

00:13:44:04 – 00:13:57:17
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: Yeah, he’s conscious and breathing, talking. He has, like, response and everything. His stats are, like, 96. We’re checking the blood pressure right now. We put on– There’s one arm available, so we put an IV to that arm.

00:13:57:19 – 00:13:57:23
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Okay.

00:13:57:23 – 00:14:02:02
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: And we’re going to check the blood pressure and see how he’s doing. He has oxygen already running.

00:14:02:04 – 00:14:04:15
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Okay. So, which side of the chest?

00:14:04:21 – 00:14:07:21
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: Left, left centre. Yeah, left centre, so. Yeah.

00:14:07:23 – 00:14:17:04
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Okay, so this is where, I think, fire can come in. Do you have fire rescue services there with you?

00:14:17:06 – 00:14:25:19
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Gil Maraboto: We have a volunteer team, so we can, like, I can put you through…

00:14:25:21 – 00:14:30:21
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And now, a quick word from our Season 2 sponsor.

00:14:30:24 – 00:15:05:21
ARC Resources ad spot: As Canada’s third largest natural gas producer and the largest producer of condensate, ARC Resources is proud to play an important role in the responsible development of Canada’s energy resources. In delivering those resources, safety is the number one priority, always, and it’s that core value that makes ARC’s partnership with STARS a natural fit. It’s our shared goal to ensure that everyone arrives home safely at the end of the day. Learn more about how ARC is leading the way for safe and responsible energy development at arcresources.com.

00:15:05:23 – 00:15:27:04
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Welcome back. Dr. Oyedokun has worked at the Saskatoon STARS base since it opened in 2012, and has helped many patients through critical care needs over the years. He still remembers the details of this particular incident, though, much like everyone else we spoke with. He said it was one of two unrelated calls that happened simultaneously for STARS, and it was up to him to decide which one the crew would respond to.

00:15:27:07 – 00:16:35:24
Dr. Segun Oyedokun: So, interestingly, there were two calls at the same time that needed STAR 11’s attention. There was another stab wound, but that one, EMS was close by, and that patient wasn’t too far from from a bigger hospital. So we felt comfortable that EMS could assess and transfer the patient to the nearby hospital. And so it was a clear choice that we were needed for this patient that got trapped under the lawnmower. So, yes, it was a bit of a shock. As a parent, too, I mean, I have two boys about that age, so it’s like, oh, yeah, this is serious. Let’s get moving. But the good thing about the system is, this is one of those instances where the air medical crew did not need my or any other transport physician’s permission to launch. It was serious enough for them to launch, and I just kind of communicated with them through the ELC or got updates while they were on the way. And at the right time, I actually had direct contact with them.

00:16:35:27 – 00:16:39:15
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Can you walk me through, sort of, what it is you said to them and why?

00:16:39:18 – 00:18:38:22
Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Yes. So, one of the basic principles of trauma care, especially when you think there’s a foreign body embedded in the body, is not to remove the foreign body. One of the reasons for that is, sometimes the foreign body may have damaged or transected a blood vessel. So when you remove the foreign body, it just provokes severe bleeding. So, as much as possible, you want to leave that foreign body inside. The challenge in this case was, I couldn’t get a clear mental picture of exactly what was going on. What I heard was, it looks like one of the blades was stuck in the patient’s chest. So the challenge now is, how do you remove the lawnmower from the patient without removing the foreign body that is stuck in the body? But later it dawned on me that the entire patient was actually stuck under the deck in between the blades. So, it’s not just a matter of maybe smacking off a small foreign body, leaving it stuck in the body, and removing the rest of it. The patient was actually entirely stuck. So, I think one — if I remember correctly — one thing I said was, whatever you’re going to do, whether we’re going to remove the lawnmower completely or to separate the patient from the lawnmower, please, just let’s buy some time. Let’s wait for our team to get there. Then they can provide the critical resuscitation needed regardless of what is going on. So, my initial assessment was, Okay, yeah, this person is fairly stable right now, but there’s potential for rapid deterioration with penetrating injury; obviously bleeding, internal and external bleeding is of concern. And in this situation, gettng IV access, running IV fluid. And if blood is needed, to give him blood as soon as possible is life saving. Yeah. So getting our team there with blood was very important.

00:18:38:25 – 00:18:46:16
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: He relayed his concerns and advised responders on the ground to wait. STARS was almost on scene, and they were carrying blood on board the helicopter.

00:18:46:19 – 00:18:48:08
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Waldheim Fire Dept.: This is Waldhiem Fire, go ahead.

00:18:48:11 – 00:19:01:04
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Hi, is there any way to remove the part of the mower that is in the patient as opposed to separating the patient from the lawnmower?

00:19:01:10 – 00:19:15:27
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Waldheim Fire Dept.: No. Right now, he’s lodged in between the lawnmower and the deck itself. He’s sandwiched in there. His whole body is in— you know a lawnmower deck with the spinning blades? His whole body is underneath the lawnmower deck, and his head is sticking out.

00:19:16:01 – 00:19:29:27
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Okay, so the STARS medical crew will be there shortly. And my recommendation for now is perhaps to wait until they get there and–

00:19:30:00 – 00:19:30:26
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Waldheim Fire Dept.: Wait for STARS?

00:19:31:04 – 00:19:34:21
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Yeah, they’re coming. They’ll be, they should be there shortly.

00:19:34:21 – 00:19:37:11
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Waldheim Fire Dept.: They should be landing here within seconds.

00:19:37:13 – 00:19:53:25
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Within seconds. Okay, well, let them get there. I mean, we have to get him off of the lawnmower. If it means removing parts– ideally, we want to leave whatever is stuck in the patient for as long as possible.

00:19:53:25 – 00:19:55:01
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Waldheim Fire Dept.: Yeah. We’ll try.

00:19:55:03 – 00:20:14:21
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: So, that’s priority. But if not, we’re just going to have to remove him from the machine as much as possible. So wait a few more seconds for the team to get there. At least, when they get there, even when you remove him from the machine, you have extra medical support to take care of whatever you find.

00:20:14:24 – 00:20:16:28
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Waldheim Fire Dept.: Yeah, we’re trying to do that. I gotcha.

00:20:17:03 – 00:20:18:06
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Dr. Segun Oyedokun: Okay, thanks.

00:20:18:08 – 00:20:19:20
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Waldheim Fire Dept.: Okay. Bye.

00:20:19:22 – 00:20:27:06
Co-host Deborah Tetley: With STARS about to land close to Draidyn, members of the Laird Fire Department had prepared a landing zone in the adjacent field.

00:20:27:09 – 00:20:28:18
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – PROVINCIAL CALL CENTRE: Provincial Call Centre.

00:20:28:20 – 00:20:30:17
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: Hi there. Shae calling from STARS.

00:20:30:20 – 00:20:30:25
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – PROVINCIAL CALL CENTRE: Hi.

00:20:30:25 – 00:20:36:06
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: Hi, are you aware of this call out of Laird for a 16-year-old male? Are you guys attached?

00:20:36:06 – 00:20:39:05
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – PROVINCIAL CALL CENTRE: Laird fire has been dispatched.

00:20:39:07 – 00:20:44:28
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Shae Evans: Excellent. We’re going to be going out, and seeing, we just need a landing zone secured, please, for 20 minutes.

00:20:45:01 – 00:20:50:24
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – PROVINCIAL CALL CENTRE: Okay, we will notify them.

00:20:50:26 – 00:21:03:13
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Draidyn’s mom, Christine, had previously taken STARS landing zone training and helped to set up. You’ll recall that she had been asked by RCMP to stay away from her son. So she wanted to find some way to help.

00:21:03:16 – 00:22:10:06
Christine Wollmann: Knowing that I was crying and upset… And then I’m like, all I thought was that, Okay, this kid needs me. So I corrected my behaviour. I don’t know how I did it, but I did it. I just did my job with being a first responder and just started treating him as a patient instead of my own kid. We would have lots of practice scenarios with landing STARS, like just pretending that they were there. Like, we’re setting up because you have to set up a perimeter and you have to watch for debris, and you have to make sure that where you’re going to be landing them is going to be a safe area. So, then I started helping with getting everything ready for STARS landing. I know my dad has, like, loose lumber in the back of his truck, so I said, Dad, you got to move your truck because that’ll fly out. So I got everything all cleared away from where I saw that they were setting up and then STARS was hovering over top.

00:22:10:09 – 00:22:15:28
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: First responder Kayla Burrell remembers what she felt as the helicopter descended.

00:22:16:01 – 00:23:02:23
Kayla Burrell: A relief, absolutely a relief. We as first responders have just emergent care. Like, you know, just oxygen, keep them awake. You know, just treat shock, you know, and that’s kind of the extent of what we do. There’s a lot more to it. But we’re not… we’re not trained for this, you know, like, ongoing care, you know, when your body’s damaged like that. Because I even felt like the paramedics– I was like, I don’t know if they’re trained for this either, you know, but the STARS critical care team is exactly what he needed. And I just thought, thank goodness we have more support.

00:23:02:26 – 00:23:10:19
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Laird fire chief Chris Dennis had been out of town when he received the page for this call. He raced back from Saskatoon when he heard what happened.

00:23:10:21 – 00:23:54:00
Chris Dennis: As I came into town, STARS was just coming in for landing. I could see the helicopter coming down. As I got on the scene, when I got there, Christine was standing off to the side and said that they won’t allow– they won’t allow her to go over and see him. And all she knows is his head was sticking out of the– out from underneath the lawnmower. I said, Okay. I said, you know, you’ve got the right people here. We’re doing our best. And, I walked onto the scene and I assisted with the rescue.

00:23:54:02 – 00:24:12:04
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: This wasn’t just any incident for him. He and his family know the Wollmanns well. As you’ve already heard, his daughter Karleigh was good friends with Draidyn, and Chris and Christine volunteered together at the fire station. He knew about Draidyn’s summer job. So when that first call came in, even though there was no name attached, his heart sank.

00:24:12:06 – 00:24:58:04
Chris Dennis: Just deep down, I knew exactly who it was. I knew. I didn’t know what had happened, but I knew who it was. So unless it was some other kids mowing their own personal yard and had an accident, I knew what it was. And then, of course, having to call Christine to say we’re getting a bad call. Hang on. Our family and Draidyn’s family are very personal, very close friends. Draidyn’s mom is actually the lead first responder in our community, and she’s one of my firefighters. It’s, it’s emotional. It’s emotional. I mean, even right now, it’s very hard because that was, you know, personal, you know, and…

00:24:58:06 – 00:25:06:02
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Another first responder, Kevin Burrell, whose wife, Kayla, you heard from earlier, had immediately left Saskatoon as soon as he got word of the incident.

00:25:06:05 – 00:25:10:12
Kevin Burrell: When I got there, it was like there was a hockey game at the rink. There was so many cars parked around there.

00:25:10:12 – 00:25:21:07
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: As you recall, Kayla was already at Draidyn’s side. And remember: Kevin and Kayla, Chris Dennis and his family, Christine and her family — they’re all good friends.

00:25:21:10 – 00:25:46:04
Kevin Burrell: Laird and Waldheim work really closely together. We train together. We attend all of the calls together, and we socialize together. You know, two small towns that close together. Small farming community. We hang out after calls. We get together just for fun and that kind of thing. So, you know, Chrissy is a pretty good friend.

00:25:46:07 – 00:25:50:17
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: He was already aware that the trapped and struggling teenager was Christine’s son.

00:25:50:19 – 00:26:59:20
Kevin Burrell: In my 11 or so years as a firefighter and first responder, that was probably my most traumatic call as far as the seriousness of it. And when it’s a teenager or a kid, it seems to elevate the seriousness of the call for everybody. Having known who it is and being good friends with the family — worked with Chrissy a lot — that kind of makes it a little more close to home. But yeah, that’s probably most what makes it the hardest. I’ve seen enough serious enough incidents to… you can, just by looking at somebody, you can kind of tell if they’re going to make it or not. From looking at him, I didn’t think he was going to make it.

00:26:59:22 – 00:27:02:05
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Next time on Mission Ready.

00:27:02:08 – 00:27:17:10
Bailey: I remember landing on the scene. And like I said earlier, our training is absolutely incredible. It is the most in-depth, best learning experience I’ve ever had. But nothing prepares you for that. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

00:27:17:13 – 00:27:31:04
STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon: From my 30 years of experience, when somebody is trapped like that and very hypotensive and with difficulty breathing, you know that they only have about 10 minutes left to live.

00:27:31:06 – 00:27:36:09
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Mission Ready, presented by ARC Resources, is produced in-house by me, Deborah Tetley.

00:27:36:13 – 00:27:42:05
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And me, Lyle Aspinall Aspinall. Watch video clips from this season at STARS.ca/missionready.

00:27:42:07 – 00:27:58:27
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Mission Ready contains original theme music by Kaiya Gamble, whose dad was a longtime STARS pilot and whose mom was once a transport physician. Check her out at kaiyagamble.com. Please rate and review Mission Ready wherever you found it, and be sure to tell your friends about it. Also, check out Season 1.

00:27:59:00 – 00:28:05:10
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Want to be a STARS ally? Get involved and support our mission by visiting STARS.ca. Until next time, thanks for listening.

00:00:01:28 – 00:00:33:22
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Before we start, a word of caution. As you know, STARS provides pre-hospital care for critically ill and injured patients who have sustained severe trauma or Co-host Deborah Tetleyilitating illnesses. It’s what we do. As such, some of the details in this podcast may be difficult for some listeners. The STARS mission being explored this season involves graphic descriptions of physical injuries to a youth. Psychological impacts are also detailed. The patient’s family and supporters have generously allowed us to tell this story as a personalized insight into STARS.

00:00:33:25 – 00:01:07:15
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And for that, we are genuinely grateful. The community, and everyone else who was involved, welcomed us with open arms to help us tell this story. Having spent time with about 20 people researching it and recording interviews on the phone, virtually, in studio, and right at the scene of the incident, we can tell you this: our conversations were raw and candid, and as such, some of the details uncomfortable. For this podcast, we’ve endeavoured to tell the story accurately without being too sensational. Still, listener discretion is advised.

00:01:07:18 – 00:01:13:19
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: STAR 11, Link Centre, you’re on pre-alert for a scene call 13 nautical miles northwest of Rosthern in Laird.

00:01:13:19 – 00:01:16:04
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Pilot Alex Parra: Link Centre, STAR 11 copies. Standby, weather.

00:01:16:06 – 00:01:30:15
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: We have a 16-year-old male who was trapped under a riding lawnmower. His whole body is trapped. Possible lung puncture. Behind the arena in the middle of the field. ALS is 25 minutes.

00:01:30:15 – 00:01:33:04
STARS flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

00:01:33:07 – 00:01:40:00
Warren Peters: You know, tell my mom and my brother that I love them, and it was like, oh, he’s going to… he’s going to be gone here.

00:01:40:00 – 00:01:47:17
Kevin Burrell: In my 11 or so years as a firefighter and first responder, that was probably my most traumatic call.

00:01:47:19 – 00:01:56:12
Christine Wollmann: And I thought to myself that I am burying my kid. He’s in a million pieces, knowing that there’s three blades underneath that mower deck.

00:01:56:14 – 00:02:09:27
STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon: From my 30 years of experience, when somebody is trapped like that and very hypotensive and with difficulty breathing, you know that… they only have about 10 minutes left to live.

00:02:09:29 – 00:02:22:09
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: From STARS, this is Mission Ready, Season 2, presented by ARC Resources. Episode 1: Trapped Under a Lawnmower.

00:02:22:12 – 00:02:23:16
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: STAR 11 medical.

00:02:23:18 – 00:02:31:11
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: Hey, guys. It’s Lindsay in the Link Centre. Just regarding this call in Laird, it’s a quick flight for you guys. You’re about a 16 minute flight.

00:02:31:14 – 00:02:46:16
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Welcome to Mission Ready, presented by ARC Resources. This STARS podcast breaks down in detail one mission each season to give you a stronger understanding of how we provide critical care anywhere, and what happens before and after the mission. I’m Co-host Deborah Tetley.

00:02:46:19 – 00:02:50:21
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And I’m Co-host Lyle Aspinall. We have the pleasure of being your hosts for this podcast.

00:02:50:23 – 00:03:22:22
Co-host Deborah Tetley: In our second season of Mission Ready. We’re breaking down a STARS call from the summer of 2022 that happened in the village of Laird, Saskatchewan, when a harrowing incident left a teenager, Draidyn Wollmann, critically injured and fighting for his life. You’ll meet many people who were there from the very beginning: his boss who found him and made the initial call to his mom, his friends, and the local emergency responders who helped along the way. You’ll learn about how our network of allies enables us to provide critical care anywhere.

00:03:22:25 – 00:03:44:10
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: You’ll also meet all four STARS crew members who were on duty, plus the off-duty STARS paramedic who attended, a call taker at the STARS Emergency Link Centre more than 650 km away, and the transport physician who guided the care. For STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon, this would be one of the most horrific calls in the team’s combined 40-plus years of critical care experience.

00:03:44:13 – 00:03:53:00
STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon: Pediatric calls are some of the toughest calls to deal with because they have their whole life ahead of them, right?

00:03:53:03 – 00:04:22:21
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Almost everything about July 19th, 2022, in Laird, Saskatchewan, was typical. The tiny village was quiet. No hustle or bustle. The sun was high in the sky, beating down, and the air was hot and thick. Students were enjoying summer vacation, hanging with friends or working odd jobs. Residents were relaxing on their decks. Some were counting down the hours until the end of the workday or simply toiling in the garden. The dog days of summer were on the horizon.

00:04:22:24 – 00:04:32:14
STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon: Yeah, just a beautiful, sunny day. Here in Saskatchewan. Not a cloud in the sky. An absolutely gorgeous warm day.

00:04:32:21 – 00:05:45:27
Co-host Deborah Tetley: We say “almost” typical, because what happened just after the lunch hour was far from it. And the events that followed rocked this village of 275 residents. Laird is located in central Saskatchewan, about 67 km north of the city of Saskatoon via highway 12 and about an hour southwest of Prince Albert. It’s in the Saskatchewan River Valley and sits on the traditional lands of Stoney Knoll First Nation. There’s an arena, a baseball diamond, one school, and a handful of businesses, including a hotel, a grocery shop, and insurance office. Not far from the municipal office, there’s a lawnmower shop, which at one time was the manufacturing facility for the lawnmower type involved in this incident. There are a few new homes on the edge of town, and there’s an abundance of greenspace surrounding a playground. The closest hospital is in the neighboring town of Rosthern, a 20-minute drive and the closest trauma centre is in Saskatoon. A welcome sign at the edge of the village proclaims ‘The Community That Pulls Together.’

00:05:46:00 – 00:06:11:26
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Then 16-year-old Draidyn Wollmann was hired by the village of Laird to mow lawns for the summer. Not only had his older brother and his mother both done the same job before him, it was also his first job and he was saving up to buy a car. He was in his second week working for the village, beginning his shift around 8 am. He was slated to finish by about mid afternoon that day. Draidyn’s mom, Christine, remembers her son’s enthusiasm as he headed off to work just a short walk from the family home.

00:06:11:28 – 00:06:34:06
Christine Wollmann: It was a Tuesday, and Draidyn was so excited because Draidyn was starting his first day of his second week of work. And he was very excited, and he was pretty much running out the door. I was going to say to him, be careful, but he ran out so fast.

00:06:34:08 – 00:06:39:21
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Draidyn’s boss was Warren Peters, the village foreman. It’s a role he’s held for almost three decades.

00:06:39:24 – 00:07:11:10
Warren Peters: Public works. Basically for our small town, it’s basically everything to do with taking care of the town. Any maintenance work, grading roads, plowing snow. There’s the water and sewer work… just take care of everything like that. I mean, we get help in summer, like student help for mowing grass and things like that. Just anything that you could think of that needs to be done in a little town, that’s my responsibility.

00:07:11:12 – 00:07:18:06
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: On this day, Warren and Draidyn spent a few minutes in the morning discussing the teen’s responsibility for his shift before Warren headed out of town.

00:07:18:08 – 00:07:48:00
Warren Peters: I needed to do some other work out at– like, we pump water from the North Saskatchewan River up to town here, which is about 12 km away. And that was what I was busy at that day, so I knew I wasn’t going to be back for lunch and just kind of we were making sure he was, knew what it was he had to do that day. So then once we went over all that, he went off with the mower, and I went off doing my work.

00:07:48:03 – 00:07:52:17
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Not long after, Draidyn’s friend Karleigh Dennis popped by to say hello.

00:07:52:19 – 00:08:00:08
Karleigh Dennis: So I’m 14. I go to Waldheim School. I’ve been friends with Draidyn basically since kindergarten.

00:08:00:10 – 00:08:10:02
Co-host Deborah Tetley: She was in Grade 9 at the time and had lived in Laird her whole life. Her dad is the fire chief. She’s a bubbly, friendly, outgoing girl who thinks she might follow in her father’s footsteps one day.

00:08:10:09 – 00:08:20:16
Karleigh Dennis: Obviously, after Draidyn’s incident, I kind of took interest in, like, thinking, like, maybe I should be a first responder or join the fire department like my dad did.

00:08:20:18 – 00:08:27:03
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: I can see why, after meeting your dad and a lot of the other people who responded to this incident. What do you remember about that day?

00:08:27:05 – 00:09:04:01
Karleigh Dennis: So, in the morning, I was doing some yard work at the school. I was specifically out by the swingset, and sometime around 10, 10:15, I saw him mowing the grass at the baseball diamond. And after I was done, I rode my quad over kind of where the baseball diamond is. And me and him talked. We just caught up on stuff, how his summer was going, what’s going on. And then he mentioned how he was off work at 2. So he asked if we wanted to hang out, and I said, yeah.

00:09:04:04 – 00:09:09:10
Co-host Deborah Tetley: The teens had been friends for many years, as is the case with many of the kids in the small town.

00:09:09:13 – 00:09:18:10
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: So, Karleigh, your name came up a few times when we were looking into this story — “Karleigh was going to meet Draidyn that day,” — that kind of thing. Just tell us more about your friendship with Draidyn.

00:09:18:12 – 00:10:01:14
Karleigh Dennis: So me and him in school, he’s a grade higher than me, so we wouldn’t hang out all the time. But we would talk, like, a lot in school, because in Laird, which is where we had our K to 8, we would talk like a lot. We were basically in the same classroom, just different grades. So but he obviously had his friends. So when we were younger we would still talk, but not that much. But when my parents started traveling and I’d stay over at his house, we hung out and talked a lot, and we would even hang out over the summer. We’d take lawn tractors and go riding around town. So that was fun.

00:10:01:16 – 00:10:30:28
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: But today, Draidyn would be riding a different lawn tractor — the commercial-grade mower provided to him by his employer to cut grass around town. It’s one the village had been using for many years, a zero-turn hydrostatic unit with a pair of levers to independently control left- and right-side forward and backward movement. It would effectively spin on a dime if one lever was pushed forward and the other pulled back. At the front of this particular one was mounted a 72-inch mower deck. As Warren explains, it was designed and built to be a rugged machine.

00:10:31:00 – 00:10:58:02
Warren Peters: It’s a fairly high powered– It’s a commercial mower. So, yeah, it’s not something you’d normally have in your own yard unless you’re, you know, on a large acreage or a farm or something like that. So they use them for golf courses and things like that too. So I know, yeah, small brush even and stuff like that. They’d cut stuff like that. So, yeah. I mean, mainly it’s meant for grass, but I mean it’s, it’s a pretty heavy duty machine. Yeah, yeah.

00:10:58:05 – 00:11:22:29
Co-host Deborah Tetley: By early afternoon, Draidyn, who didn’t stop for a lunch break on this day, paused to refuel the mower, then set out to complete the final bit of his shift. His plan was to cut the grass behind the town arena adjacent to the baseball diamond before heading home to meet Karleigh. Eventually, Warren returned to the village office around the time Karleigh dropped by Draidyn’s house to meet up as planned, but there was no answer when she knocked on his door.

00:11:23:02 – 00:11:26:25
Karleigh Dennis: So the arena is just over there. Draidyn’s house is just currently over there…

00:11:27:15 – 00:11:34:00
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Karleigh was showing us the village streets that she recalled walking down a year earlier while looking for Draidyn.

00:11:34:03 – 00:11:56:24
Karleigh Dennis: I thought he would, like, be showering, changing or something. So I waited a bit and I kind of like looked around and listened to see if I could hear a lawnmower. And even while I was walking home by like my house, I was trying to see if I could hear. But, before, I walked down Main Street because there’s like shortcuts where the baseball diamond is that leads behind the arena.

00:11:56:27 – 00:12:13:28
Karleigh Dennis: And I was thinking, if I should take like, a shortcut or if I should go down Main Street. And I thought to myself, but I like, I went down Main Street because I thought it, just, I’d run into him on like the road or something that was looking around like everywhere. But I didn’t see him.

00:12:13:28 – 00:12:18:00
Co-host Deborah Tetley: So she headed to the village office and ran into Warren.

00:12:18:03 – 00:12:30:23
Warren Peters: When I got back to the shop and I noticed that he hadn’t been back with the mower, so I think, oh, maybe he got carried away or just lost track of time. So I didn’t think too much of it right away.

00:12:30:26 – 00:12:45:17
Karleigh Dennis: And then as I passed the village office, which is where Warren works, I was thinking, like, if I should go knock on the door, because that was when I saw Draidyn’s bike, and then Warren walked out of the door, and that was when I just walked up and said, hey, like, Have you seen Draidyn? Do you know where he is?

00:12:45:17 – 00:12:54:01
Warren Peters: And I oh, no, I, you know, he should be mowing grass around where the kind of ballpark/arena area, is where this happened.

00:12:54:09 – 00:13:04:07
Karleigh Dennis: And then he said he’d go look for him. And then I said, okay, I’ll just I’ll go home. And then, on my way back, I just kept trying to listen for a lawnmower, but I couldn’t, so I just went home.

00:13:04:09 – 00:13:17:26
Warren Peters: So I went off to that area to see where he was. And I, you know, just looking around. I didn’t see anything right away. You can usually hear that mower going, and I couldn’t hear anything either.

00:13:17:28 – 00:13:27:23
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Warren was not prepared for what he saw next. He didn’t spot Draidyn right away, but he did see that is hat was lying on the field, along with some Co-host Deborah Tetleyris. But that wasn’t all.

00:13:27:27 – 00:13:43:21
Warren Peters: So I just went to the mower to check it out, and that’s when I found him there. So that was, yeah, the last thing I was expecting for sure. Yeah. That picture. It’ll stick with me for a long time, you know.

00:13:43:23 – 00:14:02:25
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: There was Draidyn, on his back, trapped… almost completely under the lawnmower deck. Only his head and right arm were visible out the left side of the machine. One of Draidyn’s shoes was in the grass several feet away. The mower wasn’t running. Draidyn was conscious and alert, but visibly fading in and out.

00:14:02:28 – 00:14:19:00
Warren Peters: That was just… it was, just so unreal. It was almost like a, you know, someone just set up a scene that didn’t really make sense to me right away. It didn’t click in my head that this is, you know, the first thing I actually thought was, What are you doing fooling around, you know?

00:14:19:03 – 00:14:21:29
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Yeah. Like, I mean, am I getting punked right now? Like, is this a scene? Yeah.

00:14:21:29 – 00:15:05:12
Warren Peters: But I mean, it didn’t take long to know that, Okay, we got to be calling 911 here, and then just, yeah, in that whole time, just kind of staying with him there. His one arm was out and he, he was holding up his arm and I would hold his hand there and I tried to talk to him and keep him alert a bit. And he seemed to be fairly alert at the time, like he could tell me, like he didn’t want me to move the mower because he thought, you know, it might cause some more damage. He thought maybe he had a punctured lung or something. So he was, you know, that aware and I, we still don’t really know how long he was there. Could have been an hour, you know, or could have been half an hour. It’s really hard to say.

00:15:05:12 – 00:15:15:15
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: What was clear to him is that Draidyn needed help fast. In our first conversation with Warren on the phone, he recalled making that initial plea for an emergency response.

00:15:15:17 – 00:16:36:07
Warren Peters: I mean, right away is that I was like, okay, I got to call 911 here. Just saying that we had this guy here that needed help right away, and he was caught under a mower. And I maybe didn’t even explain that great. But, you know, I mean, just trying to get the message across that we needed an ambulance there quick. So, yeah, just going through that, it’s kind of a blur now what I remember was. So we just, I mean, I was there on the phone and then I was down beside him there and just kinda was holding on his hand, and I was just kind of saying, Hang in there, bud, hang in there, you know, just, we’re getting you help here right away. And at the same time, he was, you know, we were talking a little bit that way. And he would say something like, you know, tell my mom and my brother that I love them and stuff like that. And to me it was like, oh, he’s going to he’s going to be gone here. Like, I didn’t think he was even going to make it. But he kept, you know, I kept trying to keep him alert because it did seem like he’d want to kind of fade out a little bit here and there and, yeah, I just. I didn’t know what to do. I just felt so glad, you know, when the paramedics started showing up.

00:16:36:09 – 00:16:46:16
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: While emergency responders from Laird, Rosthern and nearby Waldheim began rushing toward the scene, an off-duty STARS crew member who lived in a neighbouring town was alerted to the situation.

00:16:46:19 – 00:16:54:15
Daniel Kobylak: My name is Daniel Kobylak, I’m the clinical operations manager for STARS’ Saskatoon based, but more importantly, I’m a flight paramedic here in Saskatoon.

00:16:54:18 – 00:17:12:11
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Those were titles he held when we interviewed him for this story. Daniel has since moved on from STARS, but at the time, in addition to his regular work here, he was also a volunteer first responder in his home community, which happened to be near Laird, where Draidyn was trapped, so he knew most of the emergency responders in that area.

00:17:12:14 – 00:17:32:14
Daniel Kobylak: I know I can hear from the team from time to time. I’m integrated with our local department there and have a good working relationship with them. So, they know that if the call is a high acuity, they can always reach out for support if I’m not physically on the call with them, and they do from time to time.

00:17:32:17 – 00:17:43:24
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And this was one of those times. When he got the call, Daniel and his wife just so happened to be on their way to volunteer at Field of STARS, a major fundraising event for us through the Ag in Motion Farming Expo.

00:17:43:27 – 00:18:21:25
Daniel Kobylak: I was actually, just left home to head to Field of STARS, and I had a first responder call from our local fire department that they were responding to Draidyn’s call. I looked at the call, and the details were very vague at the time of call, but shortly after I received a call, a phone call, from one of our fire department members, who asked if I knew how long until a helicopter would arrive. And I could tell from his voice that it wasn’t a good scene at all. And I asked if he needed help. And he said, We could use all the help we can get. So I turned the car around…

00:18:21:29 – 00:18:31:26
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And headed back toward the scene to lend a hand. He also messaged his on-duty colleagues at the Saskatoon base, moments before they began receiving information from the STARS Emergency Link Centre.

00:18:31:28 – 00:18:49:15
Daniel Kobylak: Just by the nature of the call, it sounds like something that STARS might get involved with but I wasn’t too sure, so I thought I’d shoot them a text and just say, hey guys, just so you know, there’s a call coming in out this way. I don’t know if you’ve received an alert or not, but I just wanted to give them a heads up.

00:18:49:18 – 00:18:54:23
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And now, a quick word from our Season 2 sponsor.

00:18:54:26 – 00:19:31:09
ARC Resources sponsorship spot: As Canada’s third largest natural gas producer and the largest producer of condensate, ARC Resources is proud to play an important role in the responsible development of Canada’s energy resources. In delivering those resources, safety is the number one priority, always, and it’s that core value that makes ARC’s partnership with STARS a natural fit. It’s our shared goal to ensure that everyone arrives home safely at the end of the day. Learn more about how ARC is leading the way for safe and responsible energy development at arcresources.com.

00:19:31:12 – 00:19:41:24
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Welcome back. Flight paramedic Glen Pilon and flight nurse Bailey Sinclair were the STARS air medical crew who were on shift. Bailey still remembers how those early moments played out.

00:19:41:26 – 00:20:41:22
STARS flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: I had just finished my training about three weeks prior. So, to work for STARS, you have to do some pretty intensive training. It’s about a 20-week program involving a lot of in-person training as well as online training, lots of stimulation and a lot of ride along shifts. So we are provided this very excellent training, and then all of a sudden you’re placed into the world on your own. So, one of my first shifts by myself, I’m working with Glen. That morning, we had done a call, the call had gone really well. Everything was great. It was mid-afternoon and we’re sitting at the base when our manager sent us a text just saying, Hey, I’m just going to give you a heads up, I think you’re going to get a call here pretty soon. He had received a notification that there was a 16-year-old who had been run over by a lawnmower. Glen and I had spoke about it. We obviously knew as soon as we got the information that we were going to go on this call, and we wanted to help this kid out.

00:20:41:25 – 00:21:02:13
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Not long after Warren found Draidyn, STARS was dispatched to the village of Laird for only the second time since a base was established in Saskatoon in 2012. The first mission to the village was in 2016, and while there had been other missions in nearby communities, this was only the second time we landed here.

00:21:02:16 – 00:21:08:16
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: STAR 11, Link Centre, you’re on pre alert for a scene call 13 nautical miles northwest of Rosthern in Laird.

00:21:08:18 – 00:21:11:12
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Pilot Alex Parra: Link Centre, STAR 11, copies. Standby weather.

00:21:11:14 – 00:21:14:19
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: Standing by for weather.

00:21:14:22 – 00:21:15:26
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: STAR 11, medical.

00:21:15:29 – 00:21:38:09
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: Hey, guys. It’s Lindsay in the Link Centre. Just regarding this call in Laird, it’s a quick flight for you guys. You’re about a 16-minute flight. We have a 16-year-old male who was trapped under a riding lawnmower. His whole body is trapped. Possible lung puncture. Behind the arena in the middle of the field there. ALS is 25 minutes.

00:21:38:11 – 00:21:41:03
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: So, we will go as long as we’re good for weather.

00:21:41:03 – 00:21:45:14
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: Okay. Okay, just sending dispatch tones. Thanks, guys.

00:21:45:16 – 00:21:49:28
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: Thanks.

00:21:50:00 – 00:21:53:16
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE – EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: STAR 11, Link Centre. You’ve been dispatched to the scene call in the town of Laird.

00:21:53:18 – 00:21:58:10
STARS Emergency Link Centre – Pilot Alex Parra: Copy, Link Centre. Dispatched to scene call and standing by for coordinates.

00:21:58:13 – 00:22:07:15
Co-host Deborah Tetley: It wouldn’t be long before STARS arrived. And in that time, Draidyn lay trapped under the mower in the searing heat. Warren stayed by his side.

00:22:07:18 – 00:23:01:12
Warren Peters: So, I just kind of held my hat over there to shade him a bit and, yeah, and that, and trying to talk with the 911 there at the same time. And until people started showing up. Because, for the 911 call, they must have– our fire department and first responders must have got the call then. And so they started showing up and just the whole timing of all that, and when people started showing up, that’s just kind of almost a bit of a blur now. So. But yeah, it seemed like quite a while at first and, you know, and just that whole thing like, I almost was, thought he was, you know, going to pass away right there for, you know, some moments. That was just, didn’t… it’s hard to process it at the time, like just, yeah.

00:23:01:14 – 00:23:17:06
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Draidyn’s mom, Christine, soon received a call from a fellow first responder. Christine is also a volunteer firefighter, and these are roles she’d held for many years. On this day, she was working at her paying job at a nursing home. She’d raced to a lot of emergencies over the years, but this one would be different.

00:23:17:08 – 00:24:30:07
Christine Wollmann: I went to work and my oldest, he had a job in the city, so he was working in the city. He leaves super early. I think he got to work at like 5:30 in the morning. And then I went to work and I was in this one person’s room cleaning, and my first responder called me and told me that we were going to get a bad call with a kid with a mower behind the Laird arena. And I said, okay. And then I got the page right away. So then I, hung up and I called Draidyn’s boss and asked him if it was my kid, and he said yes, and I just said, I’m on my way. And I didn’t ask for any details. It just said on my page that a kid was caught in a lawnmower. That’s all it said. So I knew something. I didn’t know exactly what. So I put my four-way flashers on, and I started to go, and I called my…

00:24:30:09 – 00:24:51:17
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: As Christine drove, first responders arrived at Draidyn side and quickly discovered this teenager needed urgent critical care and transport to the nearest trauma centre. Minutes later, and as Daniel had predicted, the STARS Emergency Link Centre, our communications and dispatch hub that you’ve heard actual recordings from throughout this podcast, received a request from Saskatchewan EMS to attend the scene.

00:24:51:20 – 00:25:18:06
Co-host Deborah Tetley: While the crew in Saskatoon prepared for the mission, a crowd was gathering around Draidyn. Some were onlookers from the town, while others were helpers set to work. Among the first emergency workers on scene was Gil Maraboto, a paramedic from nearby Rosthern. The moment he received the call, he and another paramedic jumped in a ground ambulance and raced to the scene. He knew STARS was on the way, so he was going to do what he could to help until then.

00:25:18:09 – 00:25:40:05
Gil Maraboto: The call came in saying someone was trapped under a lawnmower. That was like, I don’t know how that can happen, but I jumped in the ambulance, and actually, I was driving. I was faster than anybody there. So we we drove over and, yeah, we found that guy under the lawnmower but I don’t know how he ended up there.

00:25:40:08 – 00:25:56:03
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Kayla Burrell was also among the first to arrive. She and her husband, Kevin, were both volunteer first responders for Waldheim Fire and Rescue for about seven years. Kayla was in her garden when she received word that she was needed. What she heard left her terrified.

00:25:56:05 – 00:26:28:20
Kayla Burrell: My partner Phil and I went first to the hall and rolled out with our ambulance. And we zipped over to Laird. It was a seven- or eight-minute drive. And I remember I was petrified because you always know that you could get this kind of call, but you don’t know it until it happens. I said to him on the way over there – and it’s not like me, I’m usually pretty calm – but I just said, Phil, I’m scared. Like, are we actually going to find what we think we’re gonna find?

00:26:28:23 – 00:26:41:20
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Meanwhile, Karleigh Dennis, who you’ll recall was the first to flag that Draidyn was missing, still had no idea what had happened. She’d gone home after talking to Warren about Draidyn’s absence. Soon, though, she got a call from her dad, the village’s fire chief.

00:26:41:22 – 00:27:56:14
Karleigh Dennis: So I walked home. I got into my house, and my dad called me and asked m where I was, and I said I was at home. And he mentioned how there has been an incident in town and that I have to stay home. I was talking with my brother because my brother was home at the time, and he had to leave for work shortly after. So I said the incident was in town, so if you see anything, just let me know. And he was, he was on the access road just outside of town, he called me and said, I seen it, I didn’t see who it was, but all I know is that it was a kid on a mower. And I just instantly knew it was Draidyn because he’s the only one on a lawnmower in town. After that, I ran down the back alley to see if I can spot the STARS helicopter, an ambulance, police or anything. And as I got to where the bar is, I seen all the police cars roll up. I see his grandpa. I see just everything piling up into behind the arena. I started crying, so I walk back and I just, all I could do was wait and just pray that he’d be okay.

00:27:56:16 – 00:28:03:03
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: When Draidyn’s mom, Christine, arrived, having driven from her job in Rosthern, the grassy area behind the arena was bustling.

00:28:03:06 – 00:29:02:12
Christine Wollmann: And then when I got there, I saw that Waldheim’s trucks were there and the ambulance. So I thought, okay, good, there’s somebody here helping. And then I parked outside. My mom – and my mom was crying, and I told my mom, I’ll be right back, I love you, it’ll be okay. And I ran past the fire truck. And then that’s when I saw Draidyn’s body. All I saw was just his head. His whole body was underneath that mower deck. It was like, I was not expecting to see that, and I started, I broke down. I started to cry, and I thought to myself that I am burying my kid. He’s in a million pieces, knowing that there’s three blades underneath that mower deck.

00:29:02:14 – 00:29:06:01
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Next time on Mission Ready…

00:29:06:03 – 00:29:23:24
Gil Maraboto: So I put my hand underneath and, like, I feel like that’s something, like, hard. Like all the blades, like. Oh, yeah, the blade is inside his chest. And I feel his arm, like, his left arm was like, into pieces, like, Okay, that’s not good.

00:29:23:26 – 00:29:34:04
Dr. Segun Oyedokun: So the challenge now is, how do you remove the lawnmower from the patient without removing the foreign body that is stuck in the body?

00:29:34:06 – 00:29:39:10
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Mission ready, presented by ARC Resources, is produced in-house by me, Co-host Deborah Tetleyorah Tetley.

00:29:39:14 – 00:29:45:04
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And me, Co-host Lyle Aspinall Aspinall. Watch video clips from this season at STARS.ca/missionready.

00:29:45:06 – 00:30:02:01
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Mission Ready contains original theme music by Kaiya Gamble, whose dad was a long time STARS pilot and whose mom was once a transport physician. Check her out at kaiyagamble.com. Please rate and review Mission Ready wherever you found it, and be sure to tell your friends about it. Also, check out Season 1.

00:30:02:04 – 00:30:08:14
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: Want to be a STARS ally? Get involved and support our mission by visiting STARS.ca. Until next time, thanks for listening.