A Timely Rescue

My father benefited from one of those flights. On August 20, 1952, he was atop a building as part of a volunteer group that was towing it by truck to Tofino. The temporary structure was to replace Tofino General Hospital, which had burned down in May. Dad was lifting high-​tension wires with a pike pole to facilitate passage of the building when he contacted a live wire. The resultant shock burned him badly and sent him tumbling twelve metres to the ground. He was transported to Tofino and treated at the makeshift hospital there, and a mercy flight to Vancouver was quickly requested. As this happened just before my first birthday, I have no memory of the event. But I clearly remember my mother recounting the story when I was older. “We were waiting for the plane,” she said, “but Tofino Harbour was completely socked in with fog. Then, like a miracle, the fog lifted and the plane was able to land.”

My mother, a registered nurse, tended to my injured father as Queen Charlotte Airlines pilot Gordon Laing flew them to Vancouver.⁴⁰ The flight took slightly less than two hours. Dad had a long stay in Vancouver General Hospital, with many skin grafts for his severe burns. In typical Ken Baird fashion, he never complained, but was glad to get back to his job as superintendent at Kennedy Lake Logging Division when he was finally released from hospital. I will be forever grateful to the dedicated pilot who transported my father for his medical treatment.