Grand Mananers Rally to Demand Air Ambulance Service for the Island

Dozens of Grand Manan residents gathered on Route 776 on Friday morning for a demonstration advocating for the return of an air ambulance service to the island. The island has been without air ambulance services since December of 2022. That's when Grand Manan-based Atlantic Charters stopped operating as both a medevac service and a commercial airline after Transport Canada introduced new regulations over the number of hours pilots can fly. Atlantic Charters has been in contract negotiations with Ambulance New Brunswick since late 2022, but in the meantime the lack of a service on the island has made recent medical emergencies even more critical and, in some cases, fatal. Carla Guptill wonders if her husband would still be alive if there had been an air ambulance service in February when she found him unresponsive in their home. It took over 5 hours for an airlift arriving from Halifax to take him to the Saint John Regional Hospital where he died.

"I don't know that it would have made a difference for him, but those five hours could have been life-saving," said Guptill. "We need a plane immediately. There's enough money in this province."

Tatum Worthen decided to organize Friday's protest after she rushed her mother to the island hospital when she was showing signs of having had a stroke. Without a CT scanner at the Grand Manan Hospital and without an air ambulance service to rush her to Saint John, her mother didn't make it by helicopter to Saint John Regional within the critical four-hour window to receive an effective clot-busting drug for stroke victims. Worthem hopes her story and the stories of others at the protest reach the ears of decision makers.

"Something needs to be done before more lives are taken and people are left with unknowns," said Worthen. "My question is: If they're bringing a plane and pilots from away, how is that going to be any cheaper than keeping Atlantic Charters on Grand Manan."

 Mayor Bonnie Morse says advocating for an air ambulance service is a top priority for the village council.

"It's very frightening to be here and to not know what's going to happen, and I think everybody feels that apprehension," said Mayor Morse. "It's always highlighted when something happens--it comes right to the forefront for everybody again. So it is our role as council to continue to keep this at the forefront of the minds of the people who can make those decisions."

Islander Glenn Foster believes choosing to live on an island shouldn't mean waiving your rights to proper medical access.

"We've lost all these outside things: banks, morticians, and dentists--you name it," said Foster. "All right, we're just going to have to suck it up. But don't take the thing the very thing that can save our lives."