CARRABASSETT VALLEY – After an injured skier died in an ambulance en route from Sugarloaf Mountain to the hospital on Jan. 12, the driver returned to the resort rather than fight through a snowstorm to the hospital, 45 miles away, according to Carrabasett Valley police.

Details released this week include the sequence of events from the morning before David Morse, 41, of Harmony, Nova Scotia, skied off a trail and hit a tree until after he died of chest injuries.

Emergency responders told police that Morse was losing signs of life by the time he was loaded into the ambulance, which a ski patrol member drove, with Morse’s wife in the passenger seat as the ambulance crew worked on Morse in the back.

Police said Morse’s wife, Dana Morse, asked to be let out of the ambulance less than a mile into the trip.

The state office that oversees emergency medical services is looking into Dana Morse’s allegations that the NorthStar ambulance crew did not care for her husband properly. The police investigation ruled the death accidental but did not address Morse’s medical treatment.

Jay Bradshaw, director of Maine Emergency Medical Services, which is investigating the circumstances of Morse’s death, would not discuss the police report, citing privacy laws. He has said that a LifeFlight helicopter was not an option after Morse’s accident because of the snowstorm.

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In January, Dana Morse told the Chronicle Herald in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that the ambulance crew didn’t give her husband proper medical care. She is a nurse practitioner, according to the newspaper.

She also told the newspaper that the ambulance crew left her by the side of the road about three-tenths of a mile into the trip. Police said this week that emergency responders told them she asked to be let out. Morse did not return a message left on her answering machine.

Carrabassett Valley police officers James King and Vicki Gardner compiled the report through interviews with emergency responders, witnesses to the accident and several other people who were at the scene. The police department is also the contracted security force for Sugarloaf.

According to the report, Dana Morse told police that her husband was in good health and a very good intermediate skier. The couple took a ski lesson on the morning of Jan. 12 and ate lunch at their condo. David Morse went out to ski again at 2:30 p.m.

She said it was the end of the fifth day of their ski vacation, and fresh powder had fallen all day, all of which could have contributed to the accident.

She said her husband did not drink alcohol that day, and had gone out to practice on the fresh snow when the accident happened.

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Morse, who police said was wearing goggles and a helmet, hit a tree about 3:45 p.m. and was found in woods off the intermediate Timberline Trail. He was conscious and said he had caught an edge and fallen into the trees, the report says.

Other witnesses reported arriving about 4 p.m., shortly after the Sugarloaf Ski Patrol arrived. The ski patrol took Morse down to the Sugarloaf First Aid Clinic, and the emergency dispatch call was made at 4:12 p.m.

The NorthStar ambulance was dispatched at 4:14 p.m., responding to the report that Morse had a leg fracture and possible internal injuries. It arrived at the clinic at 4:24 p.m.

At 4:46 p.m., a ski patrol official told emergency dispatchers that Morse was losing signs of life and was being loaded into an ambulance, according to the report.

Officer Gardner said Thursday in a phone interview that a ski patrol member had to drive the ambulance, headed to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington. She said Dana Morse rode in the front and the ambulance crew rode in the back to take care of David Morse.

Less than a mile into the trip, the ambulance stopped on the resort’s access road, let Dana Morse out and continued toward the hospital, officer King said in a phone interview Thursday.

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Emergency responders said she asked to be let out of the ambulance, King said.

At 4:53 p.m., Carrabassett Valley Fire Department first responders were dispatched to meet up with the ambulance. The crew gathered at 5:08 p.m., the report says.

At 5:14 p.m., King was dispatched to meet the ambulance at a nearby garage on Route 27, a short distance from the access road. When King arrived, emergency responders said David Morse had died, the report says.

King said emergency responders decided to return to the Sugarloaf First Aid Clinic with the body because the snowstorm made it unsafe to continue toward the hospital in Farmington.

King said he looked for Dana Morse and could not find her on the access road. He went to the condo where the Morses were staying and was told she had returned there briefly before leaving with a family friend to drive to the hospital.

He tried to call Dana Morse and could not reach her, according to the report.

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She returned to the ski resort and, later that night, a funeral home official removed David Morse’s body from the resort, police said.

Morning Sentinel Staff Writer David Robinson can be contacted at 861-9287 or at:

drobinson@centralmaine.com

 


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