I haven’t been very attentive to this blog, of late. All week, I’ve been covering the plane crash at Stehekin that killed Roberta Pitts and Dr. William Stifter, and my attention hasn’t strayed far from that tragic story.
I usually try to write my blog first thing in the morning, before my day gets taken over with phone calls and research, and writing the stories for today’s Web page and tomorrow’s paper. Each day, it seemed impossible to pull my thoughts away from this crash to write a health care blog.

This morning it hit me that emergency response, which is certainly one aspect of health care, is very much a part of the story about Saturday’s floatplane crash.

Each time I’ve interviewed someone who was there, they talked about the sheer number of people who went into action the moment that plane flipped in the water. Stehekin’s Park Service law enforcement ranger, Bill Fitzpatrick, got the first boat out there, with three civilians. They helped the three who had gotten out of the plane get out of the frigid water. And as the civilians dove in to begin the rescue effort, the ranger put on his wet suit, and eventually freed the two victims and brought them to the surface.

More Park Service employees, some of whom are also EMTs, went out on a second boat, followed by a third boat owned by a Stehekin resident.
An Air Force helicopter was called, and transported Brick Wellman, the plane’s pilot, to the hospital in Chelan. He reportedly had a gash on his face, and other scrapes and bruises. Despite limited phone service in Stehekin, it does not appear to impact emergency response.

I’ve heard a lot of positive comments about the National Park Service, and about so many others who flew into action to try to rescue and revive these two pillars of Stehekin. And I’ve heard lots about Karl Jonasson, EMS director at Lake Chelan Community Hospital, who spent the day Monday conducting a “critical stress debriefing,” so those who helped could be reassured that, although Roberta and Dr. Stifter died, their efforts were not in vain.

Tragedy is an incredible thing. The pain for so many is so great. Yet in healthy communities, it can also work to bring people together.

I met Roberta twice — the only two times I’ve been to Stehekin, she was there. The second time, she graciously spent nearly two hours visiting with me as we talked about the Stehekin Road, and many other things. I can’t claim to know her well, but I can only think she would be proud of how her community is responding to the event that claimed her life.