An Evening with STARS will be held at McKenna Hall on Tuesday, April 9. The funds from the evening will go towards the costs of building a helicopter pad for STARS to land on by the new Weyburn hospital. The event will host special guests from STARS Trauma Team, headed by CEO and President Andrea Robertson.
The fundraising dinner will also include representatives from the Weyburn Police Department, Weyburn Fire Brigade, Weyburn Emergency Medical Services, Weyburn General Hospital staff members and the RCMP detachment.
STARS is there to deliver the very best critical care via STARS helicopters and their highly trained medical staff. Minutes can make the difference of life and death, and this was certainly the case for Tribune-area resident Owen Ashworth.
On August 27, 2013 Owen decided to do a stunt on his racing bike, one in which he had numerous times before. Normally Owen would have worn a helmet, but on this day he decided not to and when he miscalculated the jump of his stunt, he landed on his unprotected head.
Local first responders, Weyburn EMS, STARS and the Weyburn Fire Department were immediately on their way. Due to the trauma, Owen’s brain swelled up and as a result his mouth clenched so tight that the first responders were not able to secure an airway.
Owen went on to have seizures with the continued swelling as even the EMS was not able to secure an airway. About 30-40 minutes later, the STARS helicopter arrived and they told Owen’s father, Kelly, that he was definitely dying. His respirations per minute slowly took a dive and his body and head continued to swell.
STARS was able to stabilize him and took him to the Regina General Hospital where the doctors told Kelly and Janice Ashworth that Owen had a 50/50 chance of surviving. Owen’s entire brain was affected, not just the frontal lobe, as his brain went back and forth in his head severing the connections.
After 72 hours of being in induced coma, Owen was brought out and he started moving his arms and legs. This was the beginning of a long recovery process, but Janice says that now, “Owen is doing well, although there have been many challenges along the way for him and us, we will be forever grateful for STARS, EMS and of course of first responders.”
Janice decided she wanted to become a first responder two years prior to the accident, but after Owen’s accident she was more determined than ever to take the training, and three years ago she took the 40-hour course to do so. Owen and his family were able to meet one of the STARS pilots, the flight nurse and the flight EMT who assisted him during the accident.
Janice said the flight nurse immediately starting crying when she saw Owen because due to confidentiality reasons, she had not heard of what happened to him after they dropped him off at the hospital. Janice encourages anyone who uses STARS to reach out and meet with the crew members that assisted them because they need that connection.
There will be time to meet the STARS trauma team members and ask questions in addition to opportunities to bid on special items.
Dinner Tickets of $100 per person are available from the Weyburn and District Hospital Foundation office or at Pharmasave, but there aren’t many left. As of Monday morning, there were only 12 tickets remaining before this event is sold out.
