Mission Ready

BONUS: STARS Origins

Mission Ready

Show Notes

When our first helicopter and medical crew took flight in 1985, we didn't just offer hope to the hopeless. We radically changed the way critical care was delivered. Join us as we chat with Dr. Greg Powell, one of STARS' founders, as he takes us through the birth and growth of Western Canada's leading prehospital care service. Find out where our very first patient is now and how STARS made all the difference.

More from Mission Ready

May 28, 2025

Dr. Megan McElheran, a clinical psychologist who specializes in helping emergency responders, talks through the brain science behind mental health and emphasizes the data-driven importance of looking after it, particularly in the emergency response field. We also hear from Ryan Collyer, the former advanced care paramedic Dr. McElheran hired to run the Before Operational Stress program she founded. Watch Ryan and Dr. McElheran talk about their core considerations in a bonus video at https://stars.ca/missionready.

May 21, 2025
May 7, 2025

For the first time, we hear directly from Draidyn his recounting of the rescue response that ultimately saved his life. Remarkably, he remembers a lot of what happened as community members, firefighters, police, first responders, and STARS crew members worked together to save his life. He even remembers parts of his arrival at the city hospital. Watch Draidyn and his mom walk around the incident scene in a bonus video at https://stars.ca/missionready.

May 5, 2025

STARS founder Dr. Greg Powell passed away very recently, leaving behind an incredible legacy of improving pre-hospital trauma care throughout Western Canada. He was instrumental in STARS launching in 1985, and now, more than 60,000 missions later, we're reflecting on that remarkable accomplishment. We're releasing a bonus episode we originally published in Season 1 of Mission Ready, focusing on how STARS began and how it grew.

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