LAKE VERMILION- A Lake Vermilion lodge owner was recognized recently for his efforts to make emergency medical helicopter flights more accessible by creating a dedicated landing zone on his property.
Ed Tausk is the owner of Vermilion Dam Lodge, and he’s been a trained first responder for several years.
Over the past two years there have been ATV, snowmobile, water recreation and auto accidents on his end of the lake, with one resulting in a fatality. Tausk decided something should be done to decrease the response time when someone was in need of critical emergency care, said Cook Ambulance Director Roland Shoen.
“Knowing that it takes several minutes for EMS to navigate the 22-mile road out to the resort and then the same to get back to the hospital, he felt he needed to help make it possible for those patients to get higher quality care, faster,” Shoen said. “Ed started meeting with representatives from LifeLink III over a year ago and found out what he needed to do to create a safe space for the helicopter and EMS to transfer a patient and he went to work building it.”
Responders with Cook Ambulance, Cook Fire, and Buyck Fire Departments got to check out the new helicopter landing zone on Tuesday, July 11 when Tausk hosted a training event at the lodge and provided a pre-training meal. After LifeLink III specialists Ty Wiegman and Josh Howell conducted an hour-long training, everyone went out to the landing zone for the arrival and landing of the helicopter and met one of the many LifeLink crews.
“Attendees were instructed on safety while assisting the crew when loading patients into the running helicopter, a process called hot loading,” Shoen said. “If the condition of the patient allows more time for loading they will shut down for more safety during patient transfer.”
Shoen noted that transport time to Duluth in a helicopter flying 160 miles per hour takes about 35 minutes, as opposed to almost two hours for ground transportation.
Attendees also had time to look at all the equipment carried by the chopper, inspect the cockpit and ask questions of the pilot and crew.
For his creation of the emergency landing zone, Tausk received the Friends of EMS Award. Representatives of local, regional, and state EMS agencies were on hand to present Tausk with the award.