Emergency! Times have changed since ambulance services were called “Load and Go.” “It’s not just transport any more,” said Training Officer Susie Schmickle of the Bigfork Ambulance Service Association.

Compact and efficient, the interior of the BASA ambulance can accommodate two patients.

BASA volunteers who respond to emergencies today are licensed emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who can offer basic life support, respond to breathing problems with advanced airways training, administer CPR and use defibrillators, provide first aid and even give some drugs like aspirin, epinephrin, glucose or nitroglycerin.

It’s a big job, and they serve a big area. The ambulance service in Bigfork covers an area from near Togo to west of Dora Lake, and from the Koochiching-Itasca County line south to Caribou Lake and the “Y” on Scenic Highway 7.

The population of northern Itasca County may not be large, but it swells with seasonal visitors; recreational use brings in a number of sportsmen and a number of opportunities for medical emergencies.

On an average, BASA will respond to 180 calls a year.

Some of the statistics may be surprising. For instance, there are remarkably few gunshot wounds during hunting season, but there are a number of accidents involving ATV use and falls from deer stands, and there are hunters who suffer heart attacks.

When these events happen, they can be far from the road. One call involved a 3 1/2 mile hike and two creek crossings that used some of the deep woods extrication equipment BASA owns - a covered rescue stretcher that can be towed by an ATV or snowmobile.

Although many areas in the county are covered through the 911 addressing system, even cell phones cannot be traced into the woods. “Know where you are,” cautioned Schmickle. Prompt response is helped with the name of the closest highway or road, sending friends to a place where rescue vehicles can be guided into the woods, and the availability of extra ATVs.

In fact, prompt response is designed into the system; in trauma, said Schmickle, it is called the “golden hour,” the need to get a victim to definitive care within the first hour.

That takes a lot of cooperation and practice.

A call comes into 911 - what happens then? All the 16 volunteer members of BASA are paged. The two that are on call will be within five minutes of the ambulance building just off Main Street in Bigfork. They acknowledge the call and begin the run. On the run, the ambulance driver can receive directions through the central Sheriff’s Office dispatch which can see the ambulance’s position located on a GPS monitor. When transporting the patient, EMTs can check in with the hospital, advise if a doctor needs to be called in and even order an air ambulance if needed.

There are two completely outfitted ambulances, so that there will be one on standby even if the first is out on a call. Both are owned by Itasca County, one of the few counties in Minnesota that still help out with ambulance service dollars from its health and human services budget.

But there is more that is needed. In fact, without volunteers the ambulance service could not operate, nor could the volunteers without the cooperation of the businesses they work for, pointed out BASA Chief Tom Evensen.

Each EMT volunteer has completed 110 hours of medical training, along with another 24 hour refresher course with skills verification every other year. Each month there are two meetings; one for business and one for training. Dr. Heidi Korstad is the medical director and reviews each run as well as deciding on additional inservice training and making other medical decisions.

It’s a lot of work. But there is a lot of reward. “So many people come up to you afterwards,” said Evensen. “They’ll remind you that you brought them in, and they really appreciate that.”