Book excerpt: Life on Kökar island means no doctor, just a helicopter

A new book by Janne Kütimaa describes life on the remote Finnish island of Kökar, where there is no resident doctor. Residents must rely on a nurse or travel four hours to Mariehamn, or call a helicopter in emergencies.

On the small island of Kökar in the Åland archipelago, there is no doctor. When residents need medical help, they must either turn to a local nurse or make the four-hour journey by sea to Mariehamn, the regional capital of the autonomous Finnish territory of Åland.

In urgent cases where sea travel is no longer an option, a helicopter is dispatched from Mariehamn to airlift the patient to proper medical care. This is the stark reality of island life that Estonian author Janne Kütimaa describes in her book Minu Ahvenamaa. Epiloog 2026, a personal account of life in Åland.

The excerpt highlights the particular challenges facing pregnant women and others in acute medical need, for whom the phrase «call a helicopter» is not a figure of speech but a genuine emergency protocol. The remoteness of Kökar, which is home to only a few hundred permanent residents, means that access to healthcare is a daily concern rather than a given.

Kütimaa's book offers Estonian readers an intimate look at life in Åland, an island region that holds a unique status as a Swedish-speaking, demilitarised autonomous territory within Finland, a place that is geographically close but often culturally unfamiliar to mainland Estonians.