Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Hi there and welcome back to Awareness Fostering a more compassionate, empathetic and accepting society. I'm your host, Rob Daniels. Don't forget to like and subscribe to this podcast. Wherever you get your podcast, that would be super, super meaningful. You can watch on YouTube, like, subscribe there, you know, gain the following on this, on this podcast, or wherever you get your podcast, feel free to share it. That would certainly be appreciated. Now, today, we're stepping actually into a world most of us will thankfully never experience firsthand. I'm talking a world of urgent, urgent moments like critical decision making and the profound human stories that unfold at 5,000ft in the air. So my guest has spent a career with Orange Air Ambulance, one of the most vital emergency medical services in the province of Ontario. Now, they've responded to people on their worst days, worked inside high stakes situations, and carried the emotional weight that comes with seeing the fragility and the resilience of human life up close. Now, in this conversation, we're not just going to explore the technical side of air ambulance service. We're diving into the humanity part of it, too. The pressure, the purpose, the personal cost, and of course, the moments that changed everything. So settle in, feel free to take a deep breath. I know I will.
And out.
All right. And join me for this powerful conversation as I welcome Dave Chops Phillips to the show. Thank you so much for being here and spending some time with us.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Dave, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Of course, you're most welcome. And thank you for your service.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: So you, of course, were a helicopter EMS pilot for the Ontario Air Ambulance, now known as Orange.
We're going to discuss service this episode, courage, and really what it means to show up when it matters most. Okay, so to start, why don't you, why don't you introduce yourself, share what your role exactly was with Orange Air Ambulance.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Well, again, thank you so much for having me on your episode.
So my role was an EMS helicopter pilot.
For those that maybe don't know, the helicopter service in Ontario is provided obviously all over the province. There's several bases, they have helicopter fixed wing and we actually had land ambulance assets as well. As you mentioned, it really is for the most critical patients in the province, so they get the best outcome possible.
So my main role was to pilot the aircraft.
We had crews of four that we flew with. So there'd be two pilots up front and then two critical care paramedics in the back. So our main role really was to, to fly the aircraft, navigate and communicate.
But also when we landed on the ground, the non flying pilot would be there to actually be an extra set of hands. So threw out my tender with orange and I performed other duties obviously, other than just flying the aircraft. So we would do things like carry their, their bags, their supplies, their, their kit, that sort of thing.
CPR a couple of times.
You know, some things like carrying blood and, and unfortunately limbs at some point for, you know, certain accidents and that sort of thing. So it was a, it was a pretty exciting, you know, career for sure.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Oh, I would imagine, I'm sure rewarding and probably, you know, traumatizing at times too. As you were just mentioning there with, with carrying limbs and such. These are, you're seeing the, the worst of the worst. But on the, on the, on, on some types, on some forms and types of days you had, you probably felt it was very rewarding too, I would imagine.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. There's definitely a huge, you know, balance as to, you know, kind of where my career, you know, ended up and what happened to me.
But yeah, when I got hired in 2001, it was, you know, other than the birth of my daughter, probably the greatest day of my life. I was over the moon. You know, I got my, my, my license to fly the area. That's really what I wanted to do with my helicopter license.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: So, so, but what, what was it that initially inspired you to pursue a career in air ambulance service? Was it something you always saw yourself doing?
[00:05:13] Speaker A: I'm not necessarily, you know, flying helicopters, to be honest with you. That really wasn't my, my first sort of like love or passion. I really wanted to, to be a police officer like my father.
My dad have steered me away from that career and they wanted me to go to traditional kind of like university or college.
You know, I wasn't a very good, you know, academic person per se. So I mean, I tried to go to college. It really wasn't for me. And then I asked my dad, you know, I think I would really like to, to have a kick at the cat going at, you know, trying to be a police officer. And he really kind of discouraged me from doing that. And then I just had a calling to try to, to, to want to do something, to serve a purpose, to kind of serve my community right, you know, either, you know, serve my country, do something like that, just to give back. And I really, just really did a search and found that this was, this would be a way to do that. And it, you know, to be honest with it sounded like it would be pretty Cool. So I had to end up doing it.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: There you go. For people who may, may not know the inner workings per se, what, what is a typical shift look like for someone working with orange?
[00:06:26] Speaker A: So they're, you know, they're 12 hour shifts like most first responders.
Works on a, you know, similar schedule to most. You know, we had a little bit of a different schedule, but mainly it was, you know, two days shifts, two night shifts, 12 hours. Yeah, you work with pretty much the same crews. There's a little bit of turnover, you know, with, with vacations and that sort of thing. So you get to be pretty tight with a crews that you fly with, which is really good.
You know, over the years I've flown with some really, you know, great crews, had some great, great friends.
And it really is just kind of, you know, you would go in, you check out the helicopter for the pilots. We would check out the helicopter, make sure that it was, you know, good for the day. Airworthy is what we would call it. And the medics would check out all their equipment, make sure they had everything. And then once we were ready to go, we, you know, we'd sign in with our dispatch and say that, you know, we were ready to, to receive calls and it was really a sit around and kind of wait sort of thing.
Some days were really busy, other days, you know, they just, they weren't. The calls just didn't come. Yeah, the calls really, when they did come in, they're based on. For us to accept a call, to go on a call. They're based on weather. We don't get any patient details. So if the weather's good, then we pass patch over rather to the, to the medics and, and they take all the call details and we get the coordinates and we head out.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: So those 12 hour shifts is. Did you say it's. You would have them three times per week or was it two?
[00:07:59] Speaker A: So yeah, we would, we would work a mix kind of combination of like two on, two off. So you'd be working four, four shifts. So two day shifts, two night shifts. Then you'd have four day, four days off and then you'd go. We actually worked a rotation where we did three and three kind of mixed in. So we worked three days, three nights and then we'd have, we'd have four off and then we'd be back at it. Yeah, and in the summertime we were extremely busy.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: That's got to be tough on the body, though.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Yeah, tough on the body and certainly, as I found out, tough on the Mind? Yeah, absolutely.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: So what surprised you most when you, when you first started working in air ambulance? Was it something the public rarely sees or understands?
[00:08:44] Speaker A: Yeah, for me, I really, you know, I kind of knew what I signed up for.
Obviously with the air ambulance, it's, you know, you kind of know what you're getting into. You realize that you're not, you know, carrying around just cargo or whatever, that there's, you know, human life really is, you know, in the balance of kind of what we do. Right. So, I mean, I did realize what we signed up for. I didn't realize the kind of, the emotional toll that would take on me over the, over the years.
The kind of, you know, the, the TV type of drama stuff.
As it sounds, sometimes you get a little bit accustomed to it. You live in such a rapid, chaotic world that you really didn't have time for it really to, to kind of sink in.
All that really came in. The quiet, you know, that's when the, the darkness and the loud, loudest times were when you were alone at home. You know, that's really when it starts. You really start to think about things that you did for the day. Because we're such a limited, like, resource and asset that we don't have, you know, that luxury of, you know, taking time out and taking a helicopter, you know, offline just because someone's not, you know, good to go type of idea. It was really, you know, a self kind of check and no one's going to say no because, you know, no one wants to downstaff the aircraft. So we would do two or three sometimes calls in a shift, so back to back. And yes, you said at the beginning, I mean, we did do some transfers, but most of the stuff that we did was, you know, like dramatic crawls.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: What does teamwork look like at 5,000ft in the air during a critical call?
[00:10:26] Speaker A: It's everything.
You know, we take special courses in order to make sure that we have crew resource management, you know, lockdown. Because everybody is very vital to the success or the failure of the outcome of a patient. Right. So that's why it's very important to make sure that the front and the back are talking, communicating properly as well as, you know, we're communicating with dispatch. Dispatch is, you know, sometimes talking to crews on the ground, you know, fire, police.
So it's very chaotic. Right.
I flew out of Toronto. So not only that, now we're dealing with air traffic control.
So we have to make sure that, you know, we're not interfering with, you know, planes coming in and out of Pearson, that sort of thing. You know, if we're. We're doing a call in that area or trying to get from downtown Toronto and get out and go into the north and stuff like that, you know, we want to expedite and make sure that we get there. So we want to make sure that, you know, we're just. Everybody's, like, on the same page and. And clicking. So, yeah, teamwork is everything. Absolutely everything.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: That's where you reported to then it was Billy Bishop. Every shift, yeah.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Went down to the island. Every. Every shift, yeah. And it was before every. It was before they actually had the. The tunnel and all that. So we had to actually get there early and hop on a ferry and take the ferry over to the. Over to the island. Yeah. It was a bit of an ordeal, for sure.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: So when are there certain boundaries of where you can fly for certain, like, accidents that take place? Is it just all of Ontario or there's other bases, say, in, like, Kingston or Ottawa, or do you have just, like, a parameter of where you're gonna fly to if in an emergency case scenario, or is it all over the province?
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah, so we.
We, like, as I mentioned, there's several bases. So there's a base in Toronto, there's one in London, one in Ottawa, Thunder Bay, and a helicopter up in Moosini.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: So the Toronto base actually had two helicopters. So we did a lot of overlap. Sorry. And there's also one in Sudbury.
So we did a lot of overlap with Sudbury and Ottawa and London, because we had two. They would kind of shift us around and move us around so we could. We could respond to a call one way. As far as, you know, we could go all the way up to Ottawa and go to Sudbury, you know, and then we'd have to refuel to come back, that sort of thing. So sometimes what would happen is we would get called to a call, let's say, in. In kind of the Ottawa catchment area, and we would be in there already on a call.
Then Ottawa would get called and they would get pushed into the Toronto area. So now all of a sudden you're. You're in Ottawa and you're doing Ottawa's calls and they're doing your calls, and there was a little bit of overlap in that. So it. Yeah, it could get a little bit. A little bit hectic in that. In that regard, for sure.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Gotcha. Now, can you. Can you walk us through a moment where you may have felt the stakes were incredibly high, Like. Like what was going through your mind in A scenario like this, if you can think of one.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Yeah, there's, you know, just on like an aviation type of scenario that I personally had. We had a late scene call coming in in the summertime and we had just transitioned to the new airframe that we had, the AW139. So we were, you know, we were really getting familiar with, with the airframe itself.
And it was a very advanced helicopter. So it had a caution system down on the, on the right hand side.
And we had actually had one of the messages kept on coming up all day and we kept on clearing it and getting the medics to check it because it was a door. It said that the door wasn't locked basically in the back cabin and.
But they would double check it and it was. And so we kind of went out through the day with it. We landed, we got the, the engineer to take a look at it when we landed and they said, nah, all it is, it's just this little pin and it's not touching the sensor properly. It's fine. So they just said, you just have to, you know, give it a good slam and make sure that the door's like, locked properly.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: So as I mentioned, the. We did a late call and we were getting ready actually to transfer over to the night crew, but the night crew wasn't really ready yet. So we decided for.
For the sake of, you know, the patient and trying to get out the door as quick as possible, that we would, the day crew would take it, but we took the night medics with us instead. So we now we broke up the crew, which we normally didn't do.
And so then those medics weren't really aware of the situation in the back. And as we taxied out, we rolled out and saw the cast. We told them, you know, check the door, make sure it's locked. We got the, the thumbs up. Yeah, it's locked. And as we took off, we went and all of a sudden we heard this huge, like, thud.
And the, the aft left door had come all the way back.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: And it was hanging on by like a little teeny piece of, of metal.
And the medics called up and they were in a panic and we ended up calling a, like a pan pan, which is just short of, instead of calling a mayday, it's a pan pan. And we went around and we ended up landing in a field on the shoreline. And when we got out, we realized that it was like just this little teeny piece of metal holding on the door. And if the door would have Went off, it would have went through the tail rotor and it more than likely would have taken us all out. So that was a pretty wow in my career.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. Like I, and, and you were flying at that point. You were the one flying the.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah, so we, we flew and cruised it too. I, that day I actually wasn't, I was the non flying pilot. I was the one that was doing the communicating. Yeah. The communication and the, the navigation and whatnot. So yeah, it was, it was pretty crazy. That was a crazy day.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: That is chaos. Yeah. You know, speaking of, I mean and dealing with this, how do you stay calm when you're literally flying into chaos? What do you do to stay calm?
[00:16:39] Speaker A: It's just, you know, your training kicks in. The, you know, the company does an amazing job of training. They send all the pilots go down to flight safety in the United States and you fly for, for seven days in a, in a simulator and they put you through a ton of scenarios.
You know, everything from, you know, engine failures to you know, dual engine failures to you know, cockpit failures, fires, all sorts of, you know, good stuff. And so your training really just kind of kicks in and you just, you know, you, you know, it's muscle memory. You do what you're, what you're told and goes back to the communication. Right. Communication. And that role is really key. Right. Making sure that you know, you know what you're doing, what your role is, what your job is that you don't try to kind of cross pollinate each other and mess each other up. You know, the guy that's doing the communication does the communicating. The guy that flying, flying the aircraft, flies the aircraft and you know, the result is the way that it was a nice, you know, safe landing. So it's all training. That's really what it is.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: So yeah, you had mentioned that you, you dropped out of college but you did this as sort of your post secondary schooling. Right. Is to train for. So how long was it, was it was a seven day course or was there written material too that you had to pass?
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Yes. So to get your, your helicopter license, like your commercial helicopter license, that's took about a year to get really is dependent on again, everything's dependent on aviation, on weather.
So I was really fortunate that I had great whether the year that I did it and I, I did my course in about eight months.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: And then every year the, the company that I did my course through, they hired somebody, one of their students every year and I was lucky enough to, to get chosen as you Know, the guy that they hired, I certainly, you know, not ashamed to admit that I was definitely wasn't the, you know, the best pilot out of the crew of eight that went through the training that year.
But I was at a different stage in my life and you know, it was really, it came down to what they said, it was my work ethic. Right. I was eager to, to be successful on this career and yeah, so it turned out, you know, in my benefit with that work ethic. So.
And to get on the air ambulance, you need a few other things. You need a IFR rating, you need a night rating, you need an ATPL rating. So these are all things that you have to get once you accumulate a little bit of time in a helicopter. So they normally take guys, the minimum amount of time to get on the ambulance is 500 hours. But they really, they try to press to, to get guys that have at least a thousand hours flight time. So that's kind of what they look for.
And then once you get on the ambulance, then you have to do what's called a type rating and a ppc. You have to do one of those every year and that involves a check ride. So that's the seven day course that I mentioned that every pilot on the air M has to do every single year.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
Did you ever experience moments that changed your outlook on life?
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Oh, definitely. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think that's really kind of where I am today and, you know, and what I'm doing in my life. It definitely, I wouldn't wish my, my PTSD on my worst enemy, but it's definitely given me a different view on life.
You know, PTSD definitely makes you view the world through a different lens for sure.
So yeah, I've definitely, definitely a changed human being for sure.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Do you think it was that story about the, that emergency landing you had to make, was that what triggered your ptsd or was it more of a severe scenario that you saw?
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it definitely wasn't. You know, that was just an emergency that definitely really, I don't think had anything to do necessarily with my ptsd. My PTSD definitely stems from, you know, the traumatic incidents that, you know, took place.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: So working in emergency medicine, especially in aviation, it comes with this emotional weight that you speak of. The, the PTSD as a consequence, how else did the job impact your mental health?
[00:21:15] Speaker A: It's a great question. I think it, you know, it made me aware of mental health, to be honest with you. I mean, I was, I, I think like most certainly men I was, I knew what I was. Like I said I knew what I was signing up for.
I thought I was, you know, physically capable. And I just assumed that be being physically capable meant that I was like, mentally, you know, capable as well.
I didn't realize, you know, the mental fortitude and. And whatnot, that it really does take the emotional impact and the toll that it, it, you know, took on me personally. Um, so, yeah, it definitely is, you know, it definitely has changed my outlook and the way that I. I view mental health, for sure. Yeah.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: So once that became, you know, more of. Once that came into your awareness that mental health was a big part of it and you, you kept going with the job for however long you did with it. What kinds of coping strategies did you develop over the years?
[00:22:26] Speaker A: So when I was first on the ambulance, you know, I started to struggle with. With the things that I was starting to see. Unfortunately, I never, like most people, I was ashamed of it, so I never really spoke of it. And on the aviation side, we're really, we're tied to our aviation medical, so. So if we lose our aviation medical, we lose our ability to fly, essentially. So, you know, every year when you go to get your medical done, you really are, you know, not really forthcoming.
In my certain.
In my particular, I wasn't really forthcoming with everything that was going on because I was really worried about losing my medical. I wasn't about to tell him that I was struggling, you know, mentally. It wasn't about to tell him that, you know, my coping mechanisms were, you know, having to have a drink to. To go to sleep and that sort of thing. Right?
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: So I really developed early on some really bad coping mechanisms, like a lot of first responders and, you know, the most accessible is alcohol. So, you know, in order to get to sleep and to forget about things that were going on, you know, to get rid of the demons in the darkness, really it came down to, like, drinking and, and, you know, you know, that's the way I would fall asleep and, you know, was passing out basically. Right.
It wasn't until I couldn't really take it anymore after, you know, I did a really bad call and I was just like, enough is enough. You know, my cup was full and I went into the hangar and I broke out and, you know, and I just, I ended up calling the cheap out, said, hey, you know, I'm done. I can't deal with this anymore. I need professional help. We had a helpline that I called, like a 1-800-helpline. So something similar to Boots on the ground. And yeah, that's how it started. And that was really my.
The beginning of kind of like my mental health kind of journey.
But even then, to be honest with you, I mean, I only did. I think I did like four sessions with a therapist and really scratched the surface and. And didn't really dive deep into really what was going on. I just was kind of given. Giving them a little bit of what I was feeling because again, there's that shame that is associated with.
With mental health and, you know, the weakness kind of that I. I felt on myself. And so I, I ended up trying to go back.
And I did about four months, I think, and then I decided I was going to retire from the front line and stop flying.
So. Yeah, and that was in 2018.
But unfortunately, because I didn't address my PTSD and what I've saw, what I saw just, it ended up getting worse.
So.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: And you talk to me a little bit about. You mentioned this word ashamed, when you saw the. Some incidents or you. Every time you would get to a call, you would feel shame.
What. What was that about shame about what you saw or how you felt? What. I'm a little confused on that. Can you maybe shed some light on that in regards to the shame?
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So it just.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: In the.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: In the ability, I guess, not to cope properly with what I was, you know, what I was dealing with, essentially.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: So there's an ashe. There's, you know, shame built into, you know, not feeling that you're, you know, you're tough enough to just, you know, to finish the job that you, you know, you signed up for. Right. So there's that shame that comes with. With PTSD and not wanting to share what was going on. I mean, I didn't talk to anybody about it until, you know, I decided to.
To put on my hand and say, you know, enough is enough type of thing. Right. So I kept all that inside. So that was really, really difficult to do. Um, yeah, so there was this just this sense of, you know, being lost and lost and just not knowing what to do and where to go and who to talk to if there was anybody to talk to. And, you know, thoughts like, why is this me? And if I just, you know, ignore it, it'll go away. And it just never did. And it just got worse and worse and worse. And, you know, that sense of shame that I talked about really kind of relates to sometimes where I am today, you know, in my life, because I wasn't able to. To finish the job on my own terms. You know, I really, you know, I had hoped to, you know, finish my career flying, and I didn't do that. I ended up having to take a, you know, an office role. And like I said that the ptsd, My assumption was if I remove myself from the front line, that the PTSD would kind of eventually go away. And it never did. Like I said, it got worse rather than better.
So, yeah, there's a bit of that, you know, that shame comes from, you know, not being able to. To finish the role the way you wanted it to.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Really, I think that's more associated with the ego. Like, if we remove the ego of, like, we. We feel like we.
And I know. And it's hard to put myself in your shoes because that's it. It's something that's so close to you. But I think if. And. And it's. And, you know, doing this is your purpose, but if I could turn it. Any means, into a positive thought for you is that you served all those years, because if I'm correct, it's a couple of decades. You did, didn't you? 15 years.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Yeah. It was 2001 to 2018. Yeah.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So you like. Yeah, like a good 17, 18 years. And. And not many people at all can say that you served that type of purpose for that long and the most meaningful type of work possible for saving lives. So you did tremendous. So just. You should, you know, I know it's easier said than done not be so hard on yourself, because I'm. I'm hard on myself, too. I just. I think of everything you must have seen and gone through, and that's. To put yourself on the line and be so selfless. And it's, you know, it's almost like being like a. Well, see, I'm a.
I revert things back to baseball because I'm such a baseball guy, but like, you know, a pitcher. A pitcher that doesn't go out on his terms and he's got like, 15 years in the big leagues. Who can say? They've pitched like 15 years in. In Major League Baseball, but they never went out on their own terms and. But yours is a much more deeper, meaningful purpose and what the world needs more of helping others and in a deeper, meaningful way. You know, sports and entertainment is a separate bracket, but what you did is nothing short of incredible. So you should certainly be proud of everything you've accomplished in that regard.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: So I really. I really appreciate that. That's really part of, you know, the therapy that I go to. Right. It's just Finding that sense of purpose. Because it's a loss, really, of identity. Right. For us.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's like, what. What else that is just as purpose. Fuller will make the brain feel like it's doing the right thing. And I gotta ask, though, because when you were doing this, you know, it may have not just been the alcohol, but, you know, the alcohol is one thing, but you have. Everyone's got a life, typically outside of work, or they try to have a late. Like, how did it affect your personal relationships? Going through the PTSD and coming home on those deep, dark nights where you needed more than one drink?
[00:30:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it really, you know, ended up, you know, destroying a lot of friendships and. And, you know, the marriage in the end, and. And it's. It's a. It's a pretty. Pretty destructive injury, you know, and it's.
The sad thing about it is it's not something that you can. You know, you can look at someone and say, oh, you know, this person's struggling, or, you know, it's not a broken arm. Or you can say, you know, it's. Yeah, it's gonna heal in. In six months. It's. It's. You know, it's not linear. Right. And it just. Over time, it really just kind of, like I said earlier, it just. It got worse.
And, you know, the people around me that, you know, love me, we're trying to help, but it's tough for them to understand. Right. It's. It's one of those things you don't know unless you know. And unfortunately, I know. And it brought me to a really dark, dark place where, you know, I didn't want to be alive anymore.
And, you know, that was pretty much the.
The worst that it got. And it was kind of like the defining moment that a lot of people were like, all right, you know, we're out. You need help. You need more than what you're doing and that sort of thing. Right. So it was a bit of a. An eye opener to say, okay, it's time to. Time to really, you know, dig deep and do the work that's needed.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
So in your terms of your career, there.
Is there a patient or. Or a moment that still stays with you to this day?
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I, you know, I have, you know, with my therapist, we go through memories, so we're trying to clear what we call. We're trying to clear memories. I do a modality called emdr, and it's a really powerful modality. It's very painful to do, meaning that it takes a lot of Emotional strength in order to get through it.
It's exhausting. You're just exhausted after it.
But it's a fantastic modality because what it's doing is it's helped rewrite the narrative of the calls that I went on. Yeah, so we always say that you remember your first and your worst. So we're not quite at my worst yet. We haven't really cleared that memory, but we've cleared, we've cleared a few. And it's, you know, it's given me the ability to kind of look at those calls in a different light, which is, you know, it's, it's been, you know, really good and powerful for me. So.
But yeah, those, those memories, they're still there. You know, I still, still get nightmares about certain calls.
Unfortunately, most of them involve the, you know, the worst ones always involve children. And when you're a father, it's, you know.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it, you know, it makes that, those calls even worse. Right. So. So yeah, we're, I'm a work in progress though. But we're, we're getting there, so.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: Okay. So speaking of that then, therapy is like an ongoing thing for you, is it? Is the thing you check in once a year or weekly?
[00:33:14] Speaker A: No, I go to therapy twice a week. So right now I have a, you know, my regular therapist. I've, you know, been with her for a couple years now. Yeah, I do a 16 week assessment with, with a kind of like a board of, of three or four different doctors and psychotherapists and whatnot just to make sure that, you know, I'm on a good progress. I've done group therapy. I've done, I have an occupational therapist that's helped me with exposure therapy. Now, you know, I'm also on certain medications to help me sleep and that sort of thing as well.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: So ongoing from your perspective, what are the biggest challenges facing emergency medical services in Ontario today?
[00:34:02] Speaker A: It's a great question.
I think honestly I can only speak really for what I did in the area ambulance.
But aviation in general, aviation is really not.
It doesn't seem to be like a sought up, sought out profession. Right. For the younger generation coming up. And so we don't really see, you know, people wanting to get into doing the type of jobs, you know, that we're doing just because of, you know, the way the pay is and what you're exposed to and that sort of thing. Right. You really have to be, I think, a certain individual to kind of volunteer to do these sort of things, you know, to Be, you know, an acting service member or police or fire or this sort of thing. Right. It's really does take a, a certain individual and I think that, you know, hopefully something changes and, you know, we see some young people get a little bit more excited about aviation. I mean, when I was younger, I, I loved, I did love aviation. It wasn't something that I necessarily was like, yeah, that, that's what I want to do for a career, but I did have a love for aviation. I, you know, those were the days when you used to be able to go up to the front cockpit and, you know, sit in the jump seat and sit and landing, you know, watch. Watch the pilots land and that sort of thing. Right. So, yeah, I really think that the love of aviation is kind of lost and that's really, you know, trickled down to what I said earlier. Now we're just, you know, now it's just a service to kind of, you know, herd cattle around.
Yeah, right, true. Yeah.
[00:35:38] Speaker B: What do you wish the public understood better about the work you and your colleagues do or did.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Hit me with all these, these great hard questions.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: Just trying to get the most awareness out of you possible to try and see what you went through, what the world needs more of help.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: Creative ways of, of innovating.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the, I think the public really needs to know what an amazing service, if they don't already, how fortunate we are in Ontario.
Such a, an amazing service that, you know, the men and women do day in and day out to provide, you know, the care that is required for everybody to make sure that there's equality across the province.
It is, it's, it's amazing. And a lot of the work goes unseen. So, you know, there's a lot to put a helicopter, a plane or a, you know, a land rig on the, on the street and on the scene. Right. There's a lot of moving parts, you know, to get somebody from A to B.
I think a lot more than what people think a lot of times, you know, the crew, meaning the pilots and the paramedics get a lot of the, the, you know, the praise and the thank yous, but, you know, there's the unsung heroes that keep the helicopters flying and the airplanes flying and that sort of thing. And those are the engineers, you know, they, they, they work the long hours just like we do. And, you know, their job sometimes is, is thankless. Right. So there's a lot going on that. Shout out to them for sure.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: And again, it's all across, you Know, the province of Ontario. So a lot goes into, you know, to a one hour call.
You know, that's what we call, you know, it's the golden hour in order to make sure that someone's got the, you know, the best possibility of survival is, you know, getting them to a hospital, to a trauma center in an hour. So. So a lot that goes into that, you know, behind the scenes. So kudos to that.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
Looking back on your career with Orange, what would you say you're most proud of?
[00:37:50] Speaker A: Actually, I think one of the things that I got the opportunity to do was meet Pope John Paul when he came for World Youth Day.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: So there was a small group of us. There was only 80 of us. You know, I'm not really a religious man at all, but it was, it was pretty awesome. I got blessed by the Pope and there was only 80 of us in that room that day. And I got a, you know, an autographed picture of the Pope, you know, blessing my hand, kissing my hand, and I got a, you know, two, two medallions from the Vatican, and it's a Vatican stamp picture. So that was pretty, pretty cool. Pretty cool day. Yeah.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: Very good. Now, what advice would you give to someone considering this line of work that you worked in for these 17, 18 years, especially in a world that's increasingly stressful? What, what advice would you give to someone considering this line of work?
[00:38:51] Speaker A: I definitely would say, you know, from the aviation perspective, if I, if somebody came up to me and said, you know, I want to get into flying and that sort of thing, I would. If I was going to do it all over again, I probably would have went the military route and I probably would have, you know, me personally, I would have liked to serve my, my country. And the great part about that, you know, as well as, you know, you get an education on top of it.
So from the aviation standpoint, I think I would rather have done that from the emergency side of it.
Would say, have a baseline, a mental health baseline, kind of find out where you're at. So, you know, when you dip down and, and, you know, have somebody on standby, you know, whether it's a friend or, you know, loved one, whoever it is, or therapist, you know, to have someone to actually start to talk right at the very beginning, I think for me, if I would have had somebody that I felt I could have shared what was going on, I probably would have been able to finish up my career.
I really wish I, you know, I had that resource.
So I encourage everybody that's getting into emergency services to have that, you know, kind of start therapy, honestly, like right away. You don't have to be, you know, diagnosed with PTSD to go. Right. It's. You're getting into a service where you're going to see stuff, so you might as well realize it and, and get, you know.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Yeah, right away. Right away.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: Right away, absolutely.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: That's good advice. Piece of advice for sure.
And it's not the first I've heard it, actually. There was a police officer on our. On one of the episodes that we had and he, he mentioned the same thing. When you get into these types of lines of work, when you see a lot of traumatic things, you gotta just sort of understand that you are going into that and it just. You just need to talk it out, you know, just. And. And that's certainly some great advice. Finally, what does. What does awareness mean to Dave, to you? After a career spent responding to people on the worst day of their lives.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Awareness means for me, definitely where I sit today is being aware that, you know, because I'm involved so much in the mental health community, that mental health has very different, I'm gonna say, views and different.
It's different for everybody. You know, I was fortunate enough to go to a PTSD group that wasn't first responders the first. First time ever. And it really opened my eyes to the different sort of trauma and dealings that people have.
One of the fortunate things about being a first responders, most of us have benefits and that sort of thing. There's a lot of people that are struggling, that are left struggling on their own because they're waiting in queues, you know, with our healthcare system.
And the worst part about mental health is mental health that is not diagnosed properly and left alone.
[00:41:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:41:58] Speaker A: Because then that's when you start going into the dark places. And once you go there, that leads to suicide.
And I'm very aware now how connected mental health and suicide are. And it is becoming, unfortunately an epidemic where people are struggling and they figure that they have no, no way out and they're all alone and so they just decide to take their life. And I think it's one of the saddest things.
I think, you know, we could all try to be a little bit kinder to one another. It costs us nothing. Right. So 100.
That's definitely has given me that view on the world for sure.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: How did you get the. The nickname Chops?
[00:42:44] Speaker A: I'm flying helicopters.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Okay. So that's a chopper.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: My buddy Willie.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: There you go. Thank you.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: He's a baseball guy and.
Yeah, he's a hundred percent. He's a baseball guy and hopefully a Blue Jays fan. Yeah, he is. He's a fantastic guy. And I met him and all his buddies, you know, he's got all these buddies and they all had nicknames, and I didn't have one. And he's like, you're Chops. He. There was already a chopper, so I'm Chops. And it's stuck. It's tattooed on my arm. It's. That's me, Chops.
[00:43:13] Speaker B: Amazing. Can we see the tattoo? Quick, before we. Let's see. Chops.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Chops. It's on there somewhere.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: There we go. It's in there. Yeah, there it is. I see it. Yeah, on the midway through the arm. There you go, Chops. Thank you. Dave Chops Phillips helicopter EMS pilot for the Ontario Air Ambulance, now known as Orange, for joining us for this episode of Awareness. You know, Dave, conversations like these, they remind us that behind every siren, every helicopter liftoff, every emergency call, there are human beings, skilled, compassionate professionals doing their best to save lives while carrying their own emotional stories as well. So to our guest, thank you for your honesty, your service, Dave, and your willingness to take us inside a world few of us see, but many of us rely on.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Thank you so much again for having me. I really appreciate it.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: Now, if you're most welcome, if today's episode resonated with you, please please consider sharing it with someone who might benefit from hearing it. And as always, thank you for helping us build a more compassionate, empathetic, and accepting society. One conversation at a time. Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For producer Mike, I'm Rob Daniels. We'll see you in the next episode.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: Sam.
