The Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS) was formed in Calgary, Alberta to provide emergency medical care and transport to the critically ill and injured. Since 1985, more than 23,000 missions have been carried out.
Over the years, the STARS fleet has grown from a single helicopter to seven Eurocopter BK117s, serving eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba from bases in Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. Each helicopter covers a 250 km radius and can hold one critical patient, or two non-critical. The operating range can be extended further than 250 km when refueling is available.
The STARS crew consists of a critical care nurse, an advanced life support paramedic, and two pilots. Emergency referral physicians also fly with the crew on approximately 20 per cent of responses, and are available for telephone consultation during every mission.
Recently, the organization has been preparing for the arrival of three advanced technology helicopters that will fly faster, further and have the capacity to transport and care for two critically ill or injured patients. The new AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters are scheduled for service in Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon.
STARS is equipped with night vision goggles, enhancing night rescue capabilities.
The STARS vision of saving lives through partnership, innovation and leadership is supported by four pillars: Emergency Medical Communications, Patient Care & Transport, Education & Research and Fundraising & Community Partnerships.
Read more about Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society: Alberta, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Funding
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“Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“The trauma of the Sixties persuaded me that my generation’s egalitarianism was a sentimental error.... I now see the hierarchical as both beautiful and necessary. Efficiency liberates; egalitarianism tangles, delays, blocks, deadens.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“Enthusiasm produces the most cruel disorders in human society; but its fury is like that of thunder and tempest, which exhaust themselves in a little time, and leave the air more calm and serene than before.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 6:9-13.
“I love London society! I think it has immensely improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)