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Coroner responds to two-year-old's death Fort Liard medevac waited five hours; coroner wants automatic weather monitoringLyndsay Herman Northern News Services Published Monday, Oct 15, 2012
The recommendation was in light of an almost five-hour delay between when a medevac was ordered for Klondike and when the airplane was finally able to leave. "In many of our airports in the Northwest Territories, the only method of reporting aviation weather is via the local Community Aerodrome Radio Station (CARS) operator," states Cathy Menard's report. "There is no requirement for 24 hours coverage at many of the CARS (locations). In many circumstances this can cause cancellations or delays of scheduled flights, charter and medevac flights in these communities." The report then recommends the Department of Transportation, GNWT, Transport Canada, and NAV Canada fund and install Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) to improve the reliability of weather reporting often required for airplanes to take off. The Air Tindi Standard Operating Centre (SOC), which dispatches medevac flights to NWT communities, was unable to obtain a weather report from the Community Aerodrome Radio Station in Fort Liard, because it was closed until Dec 2. Eventually, Yellowknife RCMP contacted officers in Fort Liard who tracked down and woke up a pilot who was overnighting in the community. He was then able to provide the required reading to the Yellowknife base. Klondike arrived at Stanton Territorial Hospital more than eight hours after the original medevac call was made. She was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. An autopsy determined Klondike died as a result of sepsis due to Nelsseria meningitidis, a bacterium which can cause meningitis.
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