Recently I had the delightful experience of meeting two Canadian Helicopter EMS pilots – Captain Michel Bougley and Captain Jacque Sevenig Luxumburg when they landed in Midland to transport a patient.  They fly an Ornge helicopter into the Midland site of Georgian Bay General Hospital about once a week to transport patients to Toronto area hospitals.  They also fly to accidents – transporting medics to the site and taking victims to the hospital once they are stabilized.  Additionally, they transport organs and/or organ teams for transplants.

Captain Bouley shared that he found the job to be both interesting and rewarding; he liked the diversity and felt very grateful to be a part of saving lives.

The name Ornge of this service refers to the recognizable, bright orange colour of their aircraft and land ambulances. The “a” was removed from the name, partly to make people stop and take a second look. Its mission is ‘Propelling life with innovation’

I visited Ornge’s website www.ornge.ca and discovered that Ornge is a not for profit, charitable organization.  I learned some astonishing facts as well, including Ornge flies a total of 6,725,780 Statute Miles (1 statute mile = 1.15 miles) or 7,734,647 nautical miles.  The distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon is 238,857 miles (477,714 round trip) so Ornge has flown the equivalent of more than 16 trips to the moon and back! The number of patients transported by Ornge in 2008/09 (20,385) exceeds the capacity of the Air Canada Centre (19,800 seats).  And the challenges to Ornge are varied in a province 1,076,395 km² in total area (the size of France, Spain and the Netherlands combined).

While chatting with Captain Bougley, I was surprised to learn that many Canadian provinces are not as privileged as Ontario in that they don’t have EMS helicopter service.

What a valuable service that Ornge and Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) is able to provide for our year-round and summer residents.  Our thanks go out to the GBGH Board of Directors and staff for ensuring that patients in our region needing specialized service are able to receive it quickly.

You can climb aboard and help GBGH through the Foundation in their mission to provide exceptional care…….every person, every time whether at the Midland or Penetang site or preparing them for transport by Ornge, ensuring that Georgian Bay and Georgian Bay General Hospital both remain Our Home….Our Hospital.

There are many opportunities to do so and I encourage you to visit www.gbghf.ca to explore options, contact GBGH Foundation offices at 526-1300 ex. 3138 or any of our Board members directly (names also found on our website) who are themselves uplifting heroes!

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By Susan Laycock, cfre, cae

Executive Director,

Georgian Bay General Hospital Foundation