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NEWS photo Cincy Goodman

TWENTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD Dave Galison is recovering at Lions Gate Hospital after the freak

December accident which necessitated the ampu tation of both his legs below the knee.

Ambulance S

APRIL 22 to 27 has been declared
Provincial Emergency
Preparedness Week in an effort to
increase public awareness of
community emergency plans and
programs. The following is the
first of several News articles that
will focus on local emergency
readiness.

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

SHOULD DISASTER hit
the North Shore, local
emergency planners are
making sure that emergency
supplies will be accessible,
flexible and located
throughout the community.

The loca! B.C. Ambulance Ser-
vice has implemented a number of
strategies.

Last year a disaster support
unit, a van supplied with the basic
equipment necessary for muitiple
casualty care, was based in North
Vancouver for the first time. The
van is one of two such vehicles
operating in the Lower Mainland.
The other is based in Surrey.

Equipped with backboards,
stretchers, blankets and first-aid
supplies, the ambulance is on
standby strictly for disaster
response.

Tim Jones, the North Van-
couver Unit Chief of the B.C.
Ambulance Service, defines
disaster in casualty-response terms
as “something creating an undue
strain on existing resources and

personnel in the comm inity.’’

The North Shore was chosen as
a base for a disaster-support unit
because of its geographic tocation.
A study done by Jones looking at
the frequency of bus traffic and
the frequency of head-on colli-
sions along the highway showed a
need for the additional protection.

**The potential is there because
of road conditions, siides,
alcohol-related driving accidents
and the high frequency of bus
traffic. The potential exists for a
large multiple casualty incident
such as a bus crash,"’ he said.

Since it was deployed, the
disaster support unit has been
called out to incidents three times,
including a trip to the Vancouver
airport last year to attend to an
aircraft with landing-gear prob-
lems.

The focal ambulance service has
also implemented what the unit
chief calls the ‘‘ready kit.’’ The
portable disaster response kits,
containing stretchers, blankets and
first-aid supplies, are stored at the
North Vancouver ambulance sta-
tion. The plan is to have the kits
at ambulance stations throughout
the province.

To date, ready kits have been
installed at ambulance stations in
North Vancouver, Lions Bay,
Squamish, Whistler and Pember-
ton.

Said Jones, ‘‘The concept of
these kits is to redistribute and
reallocate equipment that normal-
ly just sits there. We utilize what
we already have.""

Also available to the ambulance

ey ie Pearce

ervice read

service in the event of a large-scale
disaster is a Lions Gate Hospi-
tal-based supply of first-aid mate-
rial, stretchers and blankets to
treat 100 people.

A move to secure a 200-bed
emergency field hospital for the
North Shore is also under way.
Jones has been asked by the local
emergency planning group to ac-
quire such a field hospital from
the Ministiy of Health.

Said Jones, ‘‘We have some
very long-range thinkers on the
North Shore in municipal staff
with regard to emergency plan-
ning.’’

The field hospital, to be stored
in Norii; Vancouver, would be us-
ed should Lions Gate Hospital be
knocked out in a disaster. It
would also be used as a supple-
ment to the hospital’s casualty-
response capacity.

The field hospital, which Jones
describes as 1950s technology, in-
cludes power generators, operating
theatres, sterilizing equipment,
basic lab equipment and 200 beds.

“This thing is designed for
austere surgical care and hospital-
ization. I feel really positive about
getting it,’’ he said.

The emergency planning group
anticipates a decision from the
province later this year.

Meanwhile, late last year, three
local service clubs — Kiwanis
Club, Army, Navy and Airforce
Vets and the Eagles Fraternal
Order — jointly funded the pur-
chase of a first-aid station field
tent and 10 large backpacks for
disaster response. The equipment

Sunday, April 7, 1991 - North Shore News - 3

' Man suing his former
‘fiancee over leg loss

Waiter, NV restaurant also named in action

A MAN who lost his legs in a bizarre motor vehicle acci-
dent in North Vancouver is suing his former fiancee and a
number of other parties as a result of injuries sustained

late last year.

David Gallson, 29, was injured
Dec. 29 when his legs were crush-
ed between two cars. Both legs
were subsequently amputated
below the knees. Since the acci-
dent he has been recovering at
Lions Gate Hospital, healing his
wounds and fearning how to ad-
just to changed circumstances.

On Thursday, Gallson’s lawyer
filed a civil suit in B.C. Supreme
Court secking damages from
Elizabeth Butzow, Prairie View
Holdings Ltd., Trevor Young and
Seven Seas Seafood Restaurants
Lid.

Gallson, an underground miner
working near Thunder Bay, Ont.,
was in North Vancouver while on

vacation with his fiancee,
Elizabeth Butzow, 26.
On his way to the coast,

Gallson said he picked up his
brother, Jack, in Hope and decid-
ed to take him to North Van-
couver’s Seven Seas Restaurant
for dinner. His brother’s fiancee
and a number of others were
among the dinner party.

“We had an enjoyable dinner
and afterwards my brother went
out first to warm the car up. We
stayed inside at least another half
hour or so,’ Gallson said in an
interview.

Gallson’s statement of claim
alleges that Butzow struck Guallson
in a parking lot at the foot of
Lonsdale. Gallson landed on the
hood of the car, and, according to
the Gallson claim, Butzow con-
tinued on ‘‘at an accelerating and
high speed’’ with Gallson still on
the hood.

Said Gallson in an interview,
“mostly I was trying to hang on
and avoid falling into oncoming
traffic or rolling the other way in-
to a parked car and knocking my

ies for local

is available for use by the 70 B.C.
Ambulance Service staff as well as
the many St. John Ambulance
members living on the North
Shore.

In the event of an earthquake,
for example, the emergency
responders would be mustered and
dispatched to treat priority casual-
ty cases such as people trapped in
buildings. They would also be sent
to emergency reception centres to
administer first aid.

Further progress has been made
on the schoal front to place first-
aid resources throughout the
community.

Eighteen first-aid trunks were
installed through the West Van-
couver District 45 Schoo! Board in
West Vancouver schools last year.
Each trunk contains enough sup-
plies for about 30 patients.

The equipment is there for
schools to use, and, in a pinch,
emergency services can tap the
supplies. Local emergency plans
have designated many North
Shore schools as emergency recep-
tion centres.

The North Vancouver District
44 School Board is considering the
purchase of similar kits.

An additional level of first-aid
response to be coordinated
through the North and West Van-
couver Emergency Program is the
block medic program.

Based on the block parent con-
cept, the plan identifies members
of the public who have first-aid
training.

“We would be looking at peo-
ple like cetired doctors and nurses.

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

head against it. When she turned
on Third Street | thought she was
going to stop. Then she continued
on for half a block until she hit
this vehicle. { felt a sensation in
my legs — 1} was pinned on the
car.”

Said Gallson to the News, ‘‘t
feel sorry for what has happened.
I:’s caused a Jot of trouble to two
people’s lives that neither one of
us deserved."’

The statement of claim alleges
that both Gallson and Butzow
were intoxicated at the time of the
collision.

Seven Seas waiter, Trevor
Young and the restaurant itself
are heing sued for allegedly con-
travening provisions of the Liquor
Control and Licensing Act and for
allegedly ‘‘failing to take any steps
to ensure the safety and well-being
of the plaintiff when they knew,
or ought to have known, that he
was intoxicated.”*

Meanwhile Gallson is learning
to walk with prosthetic legs.

“*You have to keep your humor,
buddy — I went to a shoe store
and they stole my feet, so to
speak,"’ he said, adding, ‘‘You
just have to keep believing that
it's worth it. I went through a few
periods where ! would have liked
to have rolled over and died. But
you say to yourself, ‘Well that’s
tonight, maybe tomorrow will be
a better day. I’ve found quite a
few better days.”

In the meantime, Butzow faces
a charge of impaired driving caus-
ing bodily harm in connection
with the Dec. 29 incident.

disaster

would provide

Black medics
austere first aid,'’ Jones said.
“They would be medics for their
neighborhoods, there to treat
minor injuries in the event of
disaster and keep those people
from overtaxing the hospital.”’

If a major disaster caused
multiple casualties, B.C. Transit
buses, schoo! buses and Handi-
Dart buses are available for use by
emergency responders to transport
and house the injured.

Added Jones, ‘tl encourage the
general public to drop by the am-
bulance station at LGH to talk to
myself or to crew members re-
garding what they can do to
prepare themselves should disaster
strike.”

ERTL EERE POET

index
High Profiles........ 22
@ Cocktails & Caviar...24
@ Comics............. 40
@ Fashion ............ 13
Wi Lifestyles ........... 37
Bi Miss Manners ...... . 38

Spiritually Speaking ..48
@ Travel

Weather

Monday and Tuesday, cloudy
with a chance of showers.
Highs, 13°C, lows 4°C.

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