||| FROM KING-TV |||
An “emergency medicine legend” in the Pacific Northwest passed away on Friday, as the University of Washington announced that Dr. Michael Copass died.
Dr. Copass was the director of emergency services for decades at Harborview Medical Center. He also founded Airlift Northwest in 1982, which has transported over 100,000 patients to critical medical care in the region since its founding.
Copass began his medical career with UW Medicine in 1969 after serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.
“Copass was a beacon of excellence, setting high standards for himself and those around him,” said Dr. Tim Dellitt, CEO of UW Medicine and Dean of the UW School of Medicine. “Few individuals have had such a profound impact on the communities they served as he pioneered life-saving pre-hospital care and ensured Harborview was ready to provide the highest quality care for the most vulnerable and most critically ill when they arrived at the hospital. He was admired for always being ready for an emergency, whether it was carrying a radio to go to the scene of an accident himself, providing medical advice to paramedics, personally attending to patients or mentoring colleagues.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This may not be a name we are familiar with, yet we owe Dr. Copass for the existence of our emergency medical system in Western Washington. And for some of us, our very lives.
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I met Dr. Copass in the mid-seventies. What a great man. An interesting anecdote… he would regularly pass out vitamins to the alcoholics in downtown Seattle, knowing that alcohol robs your body of needed nutrients. He was concerned about everyone.