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B.C. physician lends a hand in Haiti as reserve flight surgeon
Monday, 08 February 2010 10:26
Capt Gordon Hutchinson (left in green flying suit), Capt Teresa Wilinsky (centre), flight nurse, and other CF medics provide assistance to a Canadian evacuee in Haiti. Credit: Cpl Pierre Thériault.
Those same skills are coming in very handy these days as Dr. Hutchinson has temporarily left his practice in 100 Mile House and Williams Lake, B.C. to work as a flight surgeon helping to bring injured Canadians back home from Haiti on board Canadian Forces aircraft out of 8 Wing Trenton, Ont.
Dr. Hutchinson, also known as Captain Hutchinson, joined up as a reservist three years ago and now works as a flight surgeon specializing in air medical evacuations. So far, he has been to Haiti and back more than four times and intends to stay in Trenton until at least March.
“I’m part of the medical evacuation team so there are three of us on each mission – myself, a critical care nurse and a medic. Hopefully we don’t have to do much in the way of actual treatment but rather help to stabilize and monitor people. In aviation it’s a different environment so you have to know something about how the body reacts to altitude among other things. So that’s why having some training in aviation medicine is useful.”
As a pilot himself and civil aviation medical examiner for the past 15 years, Capt Hutchinson is a real asset to the medical teams that are flying back and forth between Canada and Haiti. He joined the Reserve Force after seeing a recruiting booth at a conference he attended in Quebec City, Que.
“It’s kind of interesting that at 53 I can make a contribution to a lot of things that are really interesting and exciting. I’ve been to Afghanistan and now being able to do this is a great experience.
“On the one hand you get to serve and on another it’s really interesting work and you feel you’re helping somehow. But I must give credit to my colleagues on the ground in Haiti. I’m going back and forth so I get to enjoy civilization back here whereas they’re sleeping on the ground under canvas. So I have a lot of respect for what they’re doing.”
Capt Hutchinson is continuing a family tradition as his father was a pharmacist in the Canadian Forces and served in the Second World War as an Air Force bomb aimer.