Help Improve Medical Response in Memory of Caren Daugherty

My name is Brent Daugherty. A lot of you won’t recognize my name especially those who live in Weld, Maine or have properties around Webb Lake. I am not a resident of Maine. My family lives in Aiken, SC., but I have been coming to Webb Lake in Weld, Maine for the better part of 74 years. It’s been like a second home to me, spending one or two or three weeks every summer I could at Webb Lake. My father, after coming home from WWII, would take the family to Maine for vacation. He had an army buddy, Clyde Brown, who's in laws owned a small cabin on Swett Brook Lane on the west side of the lake. As I grew up, it was my favorite place to go. As a teenager, I brought my friends, and we hung out with the local kids at the lake and from Dixfield. Names like the Cynthia (Honeybee) Brown, Steve and Peter Friend, John Stinchfield, Gail Gagnon, Beth Stowell, Andrea McGinley and Jeanette Arsenault come to mind. It was always a fun time.

When I met my wife Caren, I brought her to the lake for the first time in 1967. She fell in love with the lake, and with the local people. She called it “her little slice of heaven”. We continued to come bringing our children, and eventually our children bringing our grandchildren. We always stayed in the same location on Swett Brook Lane. It was usually the Howard Camp or the Bunting Camp. It was our go to place every year that we could come. My wife and I have been married for 56 years and have come to Webb Lake for the majority of those years.

Fast forward to this year. We came up in June and had a really nice two weeks minus two days. Our vacation was shattered when on June 18th at approximately 7:37 PM; my wife fell at our camp and struck her head on a rock. The injury was so severe that she had to be airlifted to Bangor, Maine where she died the following day. She was my soul mate, my love and I had to watch her slip away on the ground at camp helpless to do anything. It took almost 3 hours to get her to the hospital in Bangor. For a number of reasons, the LifeFlight Helicopter couldn’t land in the lake area and so, she had to go by ambulance to Franklin Memorial in Farmington to get to LifeFlight. Don’t get me wrong, everyone associated with getting her extracted from the woods and getting her to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor did everything they could to save her life. It just wasn’t to be. They did the best they could. They were all very professional, compassionate and concerned for her wellbeing. I actually saw a nurse at the hospital weep at her death. The damage was just too severe. The place she loved best in the world was the place where she died. It is very bittersweet and sad.

So why am I doing a GoFundMe? After the funeral, I spent several days searching for a purpose in my life. My wife was my purpose for being alive. I took care of her, provided for her, saw to her every need, and now she was gone in an instant. So why should I be here? I struggled during that time and asked GOD many times to take me so I could be with her. It was a scary time.

On about the fourth day, it was as if God was speaking to me, I suddenly realized that my purpose in life was to in some way improve on the medical response process in Webb Lake and Weld, Maine. I didn’t know what that meant for some time, but the picture eventually became clear. After conversations with Chief Corey Hutchinson of the Weld Fire Department and Bill Yates from LifeFlight, I knew what I needed to do. I want to provide for improvements in the existing capabilities of first responders which could include training for EMTs, medical supplies and equipment for the Weld Fire Department, and designated landing zones in proximity to Webb Lake. I have been working with the Fire Chief in Weld and with representatives of LifeFlight and with the management of Mt Blue State Park and Private Landowners in the area to develop a plan to make emergency response better and quicker.

This is a big task, and I can’t do it alone, so I am issuing this GoFundMe, and asking for your help. I don’t want someone else to lose their life because local response doesn’t have trained EMT’s or necessary equipment and supplies or that LifeFlight can’t land for some reason. For the residents of Weld and Webb Lake, helping provide upgraded capabilities gives you piece of mind when you call 911. So, I am asking you to chip in to this worthy cause. Help me make this effort a success!

I have spoken to Randall C. Hall, State Representative, House District 74 which includes Weld, Maine. He recognizes the challenges of small towns in Maine to medical response and has given me his total support for my initiative.

One last thing. Establishing a dedicated landing zone is a top priority for me. This location will be dedicated to the memory of my beautiful wife Caren Daugherty. It is my hope that her death will ignite a fire storm in Maine that hopefully will spread across the state to other small towns and lakes improving the capabilities of first responders in other locations and hopefully save lives.