Ski Patroller and Paramedic Jobs Lead to Career as Flight Nurse | Montana News

By MACKENZIE REISS, Daily Inter Lake

BIGFORK, Mont. (AP) – Fletcher Anderson’s first experience with ALERT, an air ambulance operated by Logan Health, happened at the age of just 7 when he saw one of the iconic red helicopters land in front of his house. As he got older, his problems with ALERT became more frequent.

As a ski patroller at Blacktail Mountain and a paramedic at the Bigfork Fire Department, he has referred many patients to the ALERT team of emergency care providers. He felt a sense of relief when the helicopters landed on the scene. And as he watched them take off into the sky, bound for the hospital, he knew these patients were in good hands.

And from this April, Anderson officially joined their ranks, fulfilling his dream of becoming a flight medic. It wasn’t a hope he had always had in mind. Before the idea of ​​high-level flight suits and medical care came into the picture, his aspirations were centered around skiing.

Anderson moved from his native Bigfork to Denver where he worked as a bartender and sold car radios to make ends meet.

“I wasn’t necessarily living a life, I was working a life. And I hadn’t been home for Christmas or Thanksgiving for three years in a row, ”Anderson recalls. “When I got back from Denver, I decided to go skiing, basically. “

He started drinking drinks at the Garden Bar during the summer months to pay for his skiing habits during the winter and also took a liftie job on Blacktail Mountain. The ski patrol was the next logical step and after his first call, Anderson didn’t look back.

“My first call got me hooked. It was a traumatic injury where an individual hit a tree and broke pretty much everything, ”he said, noting that the injured skier was a child and things were not going well.

Fortunately, the child survived, “which was incredible,” he added.

He continued to advance his medical training over the next several years on the mountain, eventually returning to school at age 36 to obtain his paramedic license, while working his way up through the ranks, eventually landing the role of patrol director, which he held for five years. .

“With the patrol, it’s just about keeping operations on the mountain and trying to keep it as safe as possible – and you’re there when the unfortunate happens,” Anderson explained.

He loved the teamwork aspect of the job – the way he and the other patrollers communicated, gathered the necessary equipment, and safely transported their patients to the next level of care.

“It’s good on the inside for one thing and the other thing is that you are able to make an impact on someone’s life,” he told the Daily Inter Lake.

And not just during big calls; Sometimes that difference is made by helping a young and new skier get down Cold Camp in one piece.

“Maybe that doesn’t deter them from skiing again, they can see that, ‘Hey, it’s not too bad, it’s fun,’ Anderson said.

Skiing is certainly a passion for him. Over the past 15 years, Anderson estimates he has spent 1,500 days in the snow, or about 100 days skiing each season.

“Some people do it for exercise, others to socialize, I just like to ski. I don’t know how to explain it other than that, ”Anderson said.

But as much as he enjoyed being on the snow, now is the time for Anderson to move on. He grew weary of what he calls “the perpetual whirlwind of life” in which he found himself; the cycle of summers devoted to the bartender, saving tips to live later and patrolling through the winter months.

“I decided I needed something else,” he said.

In June 2019, he hired full time as a paramedic with Bigfork Fire. Anderson was the third generation to get involved in the department after his grandfather, father and uncle.

“It was an honor in its own sense,” he said.

The work opened up a new set of challenges. On the mountain he had a crew of about a half dozen or more, but in the ambulance only two responders were called on call. Bigfork Fire averages 1,000 calls a year, Anderson said, but on a summer day, they can make up to eight or nine calls in a single 24-hour shift. One of his first calls was particularly difficult. He responded to an accident where a teenage girl hit a tree.

“They were using spreaders and cutters to try to get her out of there. We were able to get her out, ”Anderson said. “She was unconscious and was breathing.”

Unfortunately, the girl did not survive.

“You are doing everything you can and its end result was not what you expected,” he said. “You have to know that you have done everything you could to the best of your ability to help these people and you win, you lose. That’s just the nature of it. You go on and hold back (what you learned) for the next time.

It’s a philosophy that will lead him well into the next stage of his flight attendant career where lifelong learning, Anderson said, is an essential part of the job.

“You have to absorb whatever comes your way and learn from it. I have a very steep climb ahead of me but it has been rewarding so far, ”he said. “I never thought I was going to be in EMS – some things in life choose you. It’s still a little unreal for me…. Don’t give up on what you are trying to do with your life. Find a way to do it. Make a day today.

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