SEQUIM — Today’s Coast Guard helicopter fly-in will highlight a celebration of Olympic Medical Center’s new Sequim helipad and a facility offering cancer patients up-to-date technology.
A helicopter from Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles will fly to the new helipad at 4 p.m. near 800 N. Fifth Ave.
The fly-in will be followed at 6 p.m. with an open house and tour of OMC’s new Varian TrueBeam cancer treatment technology at the hospital’s Sequim Cancer Center, 844 N. Fifth Ave.
The Sequim-based cancer center has expanded its radiotherapy capabilities with the Varian TrueBeam, the most advanced linear accelerator available today — and the only such technology on the West Coast north of Stanford, Calif., hospital representatives have said.
Who will attend?
Firefighters/emergency medical technicians and law enforcement officers will attend the helipad fly-in, as well as benefactor Susan Strand, one of the first female helicopter pilots for the U.S. Army.
“The helipad itself is designed to land very large helicopters in the event of disasters,” said Bobby Beeman, OMC spokeswoman.
OMC Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis and hospital board member Jim Leskinovitch and others will speak at the ceremony.
Strand, who will christen the helipad, donated $50,000 toward its construction.
The Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild donated $40,000.
Fire District 3 Chief Steve Vogel has said the $120,000 helipad eliminates the days when students from Sequim High School’s playfield had to be cleared to make it safe for air-ambulance helicopters to land, pick up and transport sick or seriously injured patients to Port Angeles or Seattle hospitals.
Others cited as benefactors of the helipad are the Coast Guard, OMC hospital board commissioners and administrators, the hospital foundation and area first responders.
The TrueBeam system delivers more powerful cancer treatments with pinpoint accuracy and precision.
This opens the door to new possibilities for the treatment of cancer of the lung, breast, prostate, head and neck, as well as other cancers treatable with radiotherapy, hospital officials have said.