Dr. Ty F. is running the aid station for one of the region’s busiest salmon processing plants this season, where three 16-hour shifts keep pace with a salmon run stretching for miles along the coast. His patient volume has gone from 6-7 visits a day to over 30, and he’s treated everything from Seal Finger to a genuine medical emergency at 50% oxygen saturation.

But one case stands out. A 25-year-old processor came into the aid station mid-asthma attack, wheezing and struggling to breathe. As rescue medication started to work, Dr. Ty asked about his triggers.

“I’m severely allergic to salmon,” the young man said. “But only if I eat it.”

He hadn’t looked into how the plant actually processed fish, or that workers inhale aerosolized salmon proteins and absorb them through the skin all shift long, whether or not they ever eat a bite. When the young patient asked Ty if there was anything that could help, he answered with a smile: “There sure is. It is called a plane ticket home!”

It’s a funny story, but it points to something real: the medical screening candidates go through before arriving doesn’t always catch what a 16-hour shift, in a cold, wet, loud plant, will actually expose in a person. He sees it every week, in cases far more serious than one worker’s fish allergy.

“Every day brings a new challenge,” Ty says. “I can’t wait to see what surprises tomorrow will bring.”