Imagine a dentist coming to your rescue by helicopter. That's the purpose of Helicopters Without Borders (HWB), a British Columbia-registered charity dedicated to bringing medical care to remote communities where the only quickest access is by air or water.
CTV National News flew out of Vancouver International Airport on Tuesday with a team from HWB to see their work first-hand, with their destination being Xaktsa, or Douglas First Nation.
The weather was bad and the team was an hour late when they arrived at the small village of Tippera, at the northern end of Harrison Lake, knowing that it had been without power all day. They brought along a generator and a mobile dental clinic.
“We fly in, unbox everything and set up a clinic in whatever space we have,” says Cam Robson, a mobile dentist who works with the charity. “All we need is an electrical outlet and a sink.”
It's a five-hour round trip along forest roads from Tippera to the nearest town. Trips to the dentist or doctor can take a full day and require an overnight stay in a hotel – some in the community of 120 people simply can't afford the journey.
“A lot of our community members don't have adequate vehicles and of those that do have vehicles, a lot of them can't afford insurance and things like that,” Chief Don Harris told CTV News.
Cam Robson, a traveling dentist working with Helicopters Without Borders, opens a practice in Tipperah, B.C. (CTV News)
Among the patients Robson and his assistant, Rosie Walker, saw on Tuesday and Wednesday were several children who linked the dental clinic to nightmarish childhood experiences they had while traveling or trauma from being treated outside their community, such as Vanessa Ringer's 11-year-old daughter, Zoe, before Robson worked her magic.
“I could see that she relaxed a little bit while they were explaining everything, and it was good to see that,” said Vanessa, who is grateful for this care within the community.
“It's a big help. My daughter's school starts at 9 o'clock, but I drop her off at 9:15 and she's already back at school by 10. She had a spelling test today so she won't miss it anymore,” the mother said with a smile, sitting in Robson's chair herself.
Helicopters Without Borders was co-founded in 2020 by pilot Owen McClung-Sitnam, who was inspired by his father, who also works in the aviation industry, and his uncle, who has worked in the non-profit sector for decades.
Chief Don Harris of the Zakutsa or Douglas tribe. (CTV News)
“I was looking for a way to bring the two together: the nonprofit world and the aviation industry,” McClung-Sitnam said.
Four years later, the charity has delivered food, vaccines, medical equipment and complete care teams to several communities. “We'll be sending in teams of a range of clinical workers, including mental health, doctors, dentists and harm reduction,” McClane-Sitnam added.
He sees this as a future model for delivering health care to remote areas: “The vision is that everyone in British Columbia, regardless of their geographic location, has access to basic health care.”
HWB is both privately and publicly funded and is looking to increase its profile in order to generate new partnerships and expand its services.
“When I started HWB, I said yes to everything just to get things off the ground,” McClung-Sitnam says. “It was a learning curve. Now I have to say no because we're still a small team. We just don't have the capacity.”
The team on the ground in Tippera saw 15 patients this week, spending around 24 hours there before returning them to the helicopter. They will return to Tippera in three months' time, hoping to further develop the relationships they have built with their patients, ultimately leading to improvements in care for their entire lives.
