Rob Cook Receives Purple Merit Star Award.

Blue Mountain Ski Patrol

07/10/2006 - Rob Cook receives Purple Merit Star Award.

Rob Cook, of Blue Mountain Ski Patrol was awarded a NSP – Purple Merit Star Award for intervention where his actions made a significant impact on saving a life in February of 2006. The picture below shows Rob receiving the award from Gerit Lewisch, Eastern Regional NSP Director, John Stinsmen, Eastern Pa Section Chief, John Pelicciota, outgoing Eastern Regional NSP Director, (John was director at the time of the incident), Jim Dailey, BMSP Patrol Director, and Ed Kline BMSP Hill captain on Rob’s shift presented at Blue Mountain Ski Area.

The purple cross is a significant award which requires input from the Physician, confirming that interventions taken at the scene were ‘life saving’

In accepting, Rob advised that it took longer to write up the ‘actions and occurrences’ for the award process, than it did to for the accident itself!

Rob explained that training was ‘significant’ in being able to respond properly. Slope side assessment, being able to quickly recognize signs and symptoms and make decisions to fly Medivac, get extra patrollers on scene for back boarding and extrication, were all parts of the puzzle for ‘really being effective’. OEC Training, annual OEC refreshers courses, and several years of experience patrolling allowed Rob to ‘ just do it right’ while the adrenaline kept pumping.

“Afterwards one can replay the incident over and over, just like many of us do, but the common thread is training and confidence to put all that you have learned and practice into reality”.

Click on photo to enlarge.