Autopsies ‘emotionally taxing’
Dr. Trevor Jain looks back on airline disaster 20 years later
I remember vividly the call I got in the early morning in September 1998.
I was in my last year of medical school. I was informed by the duty officer from Brigade Headquarters that an airliner had crashed and I was to report to Hangar B at Shearwater immediately.
The RCMP gave me a lift over after I quickly put on my uniform. I was asked by the chief medical examiner to get a morgue up and running and became the pathology operations officer. I sketched out a diagram remembering what I needed for supplies to do autopsies from the time I was a pathology assistant prior to medical school.
The first autopsy I will never forget.
The amount of trauma the people on the airplane suffered was nothing like I had ever seen.
My team did the autopsies on the babies on the flight. These were the most traumatizing and emotionally taxing. I remember asking them to leave the autopsy suite and conducting them on my own.
The bond I formed with the team was strong and developed while working 12 to 16 hours a day for weeks until everyone was identified.
I only have been back to Peggy’s Cove once since that time.
Only recently did I return to Hangar B at Shearwater, close to 20 years after leaving the building. I don’t plan to revisit.
I was asked how it changed me. It is hard for me to describe. I believe it made me better at my profession. It made me stronger but more reflective.
I developed a keen interest in disaster medicine and subsequently became a specialist in this area.
I still occasionally smell JP4 jet fuel intermittently for no reason.
I don’t like flying over water.
Sometimes when I go to shake a hand I will start a mental dictation of what the hand looks like.
I don’t like crowds for long periods of time but enjoy talking to people and hearing about their life experiences.
It has made me appreciate life more. Dr. Trevor Jain is an emergency physician at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown. He is the program director for the bachelor of science in paramedicine program at UPEI as well as medical director for paramedicine programs at Holland College. He is currently deployed on OP IMPACT as a trauma team leader overseas. He received the Meritorious Service Medal (military division) from the governor general in 1999 for his work on Swissair. He was awarded the Order of Military Merit (officer level) this year for his outstanding military service career. He wrote about his Swissair experience in the book, “Everyday Heroes”, by Jody Mitic.