Ben Crooks

Ornge helicopter and team crew are pictured here after a late night CCTT patient transfer. Photo Supplied

Main Street has long served as a route for ambulances moving patients to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and The Ottawa Hospital – General Campus. Lesser known is the role played by air ambulances that routinely fly overhead to transport patients to both facilities.

Though the routes they fly are so near to us here in Old Ottawa East, few of us know of the highly trained and skilled professionals from Ornge and CHEO’s Critical Care Transport Team who provide us with the life-saving air ambulance service.

The Mainstreeter set out to learn more about CHEO’s CCTT unit, and the team’s Clinical Manager, Melissa Brett was a willing and knowledgeable source of fascinating details about her team and their exploits on our behalf.

Specialists in Care

CHEO is home to one of Ontario’s four neonatal transportation teams, referred to as the Critical Care Transport Team ((CCTT)). The CCTT is tasked with providing state of the art medical services to infants, children, and youth over a 440,000 square kilometre area. Up to 60 transportation calls are handled per month, ranging from regional calls to hospitals such as Perth and Winchester, to extended missions to communities such as Attawapiskat and Moose Factory.

The responsibility for safely transporting neonatal and pediatric patients rests with a team of Registered Nurses and Registered Respiratory Therapists, each of whom have extensive experience in critical care and have undergone a 12-to-18-month specialised training program. These medical professionals are cross-trained to perform higher level of care duties such as intubation and patient stabilization and serve as the eyes and ears of their remote supervising physicians.

Patients on the Move

A cornerstone of the CCTT’s role is moving patients to CHEO and other receiving hospitals when neonatal and pediatric care is required that can’t be provided locally. Working alongside partners such as the Ottawa Paramedic Service and Ornge, Ontario’s air ambulance provider, the CCTT travels by land ambulances, airplanes, and helicopters to reach the patient in need.

Advanced care begins before patients leave their community as they are prepared for travel on state-of-the-art transportation decks. Each unit costs upwards of half a million dollars and functions as a mobile Intensive Care Unit, with monitors, pumps, and all the equipment needed to ensure patient stability.

Ornge bases one helicopter at Ottawa International Airport – the use of this unique resource is carefully evaluated according to factors such as the patient’s medical needs and flying conditions. When residents look up and see Ornge overhead with the CCTT onboard, Melissa notes that “…what they are seeing… is one of the sickest little patients in the province.” CHEO’s heliport enables CCTT missions moving by helicopter to arrive directly at the facility multiple times per month, and for the patient to be seamlessly transferred to further care by receiving medical professionals.

In addition to Ornge’s CCTT flights, the organization’s helicopter routinely touches down at the shared helipad while moving pediatric and adult patients to CHEO and the General Campus, including individuals undergoing cancer treatment who require transportation for acute care.

Growing Needs and Unwavering Commitment

For the CCTT, the future represents anything but the status quo. Taskings have steadily increased and work is continually underway to expand the team’s capabilities, including the addition of new equipment such as portable ultrasound units, expanding from two to three daily shifts, and increasing the ability to accept older patients. Support from the CHEO Foundation and contributions from the community have been key to enabling these initiatives.

The CHEO heliport is where CCTT missions moving by helicopter arrive multiple times per month with some of “the sickest little patients in the province.” Photo Supplied

The success of every mission is inseparable from the commitment and passion of the members of the CCTT and their partners, including pilots, paramedics, and physicians. CCTT members can be tasked to provide care for missions extending up to 20 hours in duration. Routinely, they respond with unwavering dedication, skill and care to ensure that patient needs are met, whether it’s day or night, weekends or holidays.

According to the CCTT’s clinical manager, the common trait across all team members is their penchant for hard work. “It takes a special kind of person to want to work as hard as they do… Every single person on the team [is] here for the patient,” notes Melissa Brett.