This ER doc responds to critical calls in B.C. in his spare time. For free [Video]

There’s an area on Highway 3 near Nelson, B.C., that Dr. Nicholas Sparrow knows well. There are no markers or special features, but he can easily find where he helped a person in an accident get out of their vehicle with broken femurs in both legs.

A broken femur can cause a person to lose up to 1.5 litres of blood, so he had to work fast.

“Potentially now this is a major, major trauma with potential for blood loss,” he recently told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC’s White Coat, Black Art. 

The patient was airlifted to a nearby trauma unit and recovered. But that incident is one of many Sparrow has responded to on that highway as an emergency response physician.

Some emergency responders both locally and nationally say Sparrow is doing something different in Canada. He’s a physician who volunteers in his off-hours, responding to emergency calls in the field through …