The Good Life – July-August 2018

While boredom can set in, perhaps the biggest challenge is
making the judgement call when a request does come in.
“There's times when, man, you really want to go but you
have weather rules you have to abide by. I have to try and
look into the future and see what's going to happen,” he
said. “The worst part is turning down a flight and the
weather doesn't do what the forecast says.”
Luckily, if that’s the case, there are other options.
"If I turn down a flight, we’ll send the fixed wing (airplane).
Those guys fly in almost anything,” he explained.
That is, unless their airport – or the destination airport – is
closed. If neither are available, the third option is to go by
ground via ambulance.
For both dispatchers and those in emergency medicine,
part of the job means accepting they may never know the
outcome of their work.
Flying with up to 15 different crew members in 7 days,
Erickson is lucky if he hears in passing about a patient
outcome. Some days, he reads about it in the newspaper.
"You'll hear bits and pieces of it, but a lot of times, you don't
know," he said.
Often times, Erickson says doing his job means staying in
the zone and accepting you did what you could.
In fact, at the end of the day, Erickson says he often grins,
overhearing the crew talk about the flight experience and
what they achieved on board.
In the end, the good life means "having every other
week off," Erickson said, laughing and poking fun at his
colleagues. "I like coming to work. Look at this facility we
have, the people we work with, the equipment we run –
that's the good life.”
But perhaps what’s most rewarding is "knowing you just
saved somebody's life," he said. •
urbantoadmedia.com / THE GOOD LIFE / 23