Imagine you are a cardiac patient and time is equal to remaining heart muscle. Whether by fixed wing or helicopter, you want to minimize the number of times you as a patient are transferred in and out of vehicles in route to a critical care facility because multiple transports of any kind increase risk.

These risks also include equipment malfunctions, critical tubes dislodging, IV’s infiltrating – but the most important risk of all is losing precious time.

So I am having trouble understanding why our new hospital, built with a great deal of funding from the community, does not have a helipad to benefit that community. Why does the helicopter land at the Friday Harbor Airport, requiring a crew and their equipment to be transported around the block 0.3 miles to the hospital using up valuable time– and then the reverse with the patient finally aboard the ambulance and back to the airport again? The helicopter should land at a helipad at the hospital for a single swift trip to retrieve the waiting patient.

This makes no sense. Furthermore, while this unnecessary re-routing is occurring it takes up the valuable time and resources of our paramedics, as well as taking an aid unit out of service that could be potentially needed by another citizen.

In real life, we don’t get a note that gives us a “heads up” so we can prepare for a heart attack, stroke, or accidental injury. But if that day does come, our community should do everything in our power beforehand to increase the chances of holding our loved ones again. A helipad is that opportunity.

Kathleen Bartholomew

Friday Harbor