ASSINIBOIA - Did you know that when the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance took flight, under the reign of Tommy Douglas, Premier of Saskatchewan, it included Assiniboia nurse, Irene Sutherland?
Sutherland flew with the service for 25 years, serving mostly as a Chief Flight Nurse. A graduate of the Institute of Aviation Medicine in Toronto, Irene’s achievements in developing flight nursing techniques were numerous.
Nurse Sutherland was known for her intense dedication and concern for patients and served as inspiration to all who worked with her, as she helped save many lives.
Assiniboia is proud of Sutherland’s contributions to the health care of the province’s residents. She now rests beside her parents in the Town of Assiniboia cemetery.
Irene Sutherland was a long-serving nurse with Air Ambulance through the years and the first woman to take an aviation medical course. Her knowledge of Saskatchewan and flights across it were so experienced and knowledgeable that in a historical story about responding to a car crash, Irene knew that when you fly over the Qu’Appelle Valley, the plane always drops a little. This knowledge is just one example of how her experience and intuition helped her manage her patients on board.
The familiar story of long distances, not always desirable roads, compounded with too few hospitals and doctors across rural Saskatchewan, worries were evident for emergency medical treatment. While this may reflect today’s headlines about Saskatchewan health care, it also reflected the state of rural medical care in the province in the 1940’s when Irene Sutherland served the province’s residents in her nursing role.
History tells us by 1959, Saskatchewan air ambulance service had already made 10,000 emergency flights and saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.
Flights were not always easy as harsh Saskatchewan weather was a factor, as were rural airport service resulting in landing in fields, often at night and in undesirable weather at times.
Taken from the CAHS chapter website, quoting a Regina Leader Post story from December of 1993, “So respected was flight nurse, Irene Sutherland, that she was asked to write a paper for the air force’s institute of aviation medicine.”
This story also recounts a time in 1949, when the pilot and Sutherland were preparing to take off on a mercy flight in a Norseman bush plane, when Tommy Douglas, political father to the service, arrived and asked if he could tag along to get the ‘feel’ of their operation. Upon arrival at a remote farm, melting snow caused the aircraft’s skis to become stuck and when pilot Campbell exited to help resolve the problem, so too did Douglas, in his overcoat and fedora.
Irene Sutherland was part of the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan tribute for Nurses’ Week, posted on their social media pages on May 8.
