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Toronto paramedics claim elderly patient died during 3-hour ambulance wait

Posted By: Newstalk 1010 · 1/3/2013 5:42:00 AM

The union that represents Toronto's paramedics claims an elderly man died while waiting more than three hours for an ambulance.

The alleged incident happened on December 30th at nursing home near Don Mills Road and Overlea Boulevard.

The Toronto Sun reports an ambulance was called because the man was suffering with abdominal pain.

EMS classified the call for help as a low priority and the ambulance didn't come until hours later, after the nursing home called back when the patient's condition got worse.

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  1. Brian posted on 01/03/2013 10:57 PM
    I'm certain that had the home which originated the call declared that there was some urgency, then the dispatch centre would have upgraded the response.
    1. Marla posted on 01/04/2013 07:48 AM
      @Brian Don't be so sure Brian. I had what turned out to be a multiple fractured leg of both bones and was lying in a park down the street from the EMS garage and the bystander called for the EMS. It took them 45 minutes. A second call was placed. THen they came, refused to splint my leg believing that nothing much was wrong with it because it was not swelling up and it dangled as they carried me onto the stretcher and slowly drove to Sunnybrook Hospital. At that point the EMS told the triage nurse that not much is wrong with my leg and I'm just a complainer. After 2 hours of lying there in extreme pain, a rude doctor finally authorized me to have an x-ray on my leg. It showed that my tibia and fibula were broken above my ankle and below my knee which means that nothing was holding my leg together. I was in a cast for 6 months, lost my business, had a caregiver that I paid for, and so on. Apparently some broken limbs DON'T swell up immediately. I tried to address these issues with the EMS but their union stepped in to protect their bad judgment. I also tried to find out why they didn't have splints in their vehicle or why they refused to immobilize my limb until further investigation was performed. I got nowhere with them. So yes, I totally believe that the EMS probably and sadly heard the call and assessed that it was from a nursing home and took their sweet time, causing death due to delayed response.
    2. richard posted on 01/07/2013 09:07 AM
      @Brian the first contact when calling for an ambulance is through the dispatch centre who answers the calls. they follow a computer script when asking the questions about what is wrong and the program determines the priority. Don't you find it odd that it was the Union that reported this to the media at a time when they are pushing to get more paramedics and union members? I am confident that Toronto EMS would have an investigation; underway which is a requirement under the Ambulance Act.
  2. CL posted on 01/18/2013 11:35 AM
    I wanted to point out a few things to the above posters, from what I know about the way Toronto EMS is run...

    Simply telling the dispatcher that a call is "urgent" won't do a damn thing for the patient. Saying he's having difficulty breathing, though...

    For the record I don't support doing that in any way whatsoever because I've seen ambulances go to unnecessary calls while someone else who truly needs an ambulance is stuck waiting around for one It's one of the reasons why the system is so congested.

    That being said, common sense dictates that abdominal pain is considered low priority compared to just say, a severe asthma attack or a child ran over by a streetcar. It's all about the current crop of calls on the dispatcher screen. Throw in the fact that Toronto EMS IS understaffed and you get three hour wait times - regardless of whether there is an EMS station down the street. Chances are, those ambulances aren't in their station for the majority if not the entirety of their shift. They're likely at least a 20 minute drive away covering another area of the city, in the middle of another call, or stuck in offload delay at a hospital.

    For Marla - I'm assuming you described the situation accurately, so I'll agree it was inappropriate how the medics treated you. However, how long they took to get to the call usually has little to do with the actual medics - see the above paragraphs.

    As for the union, it's a double-edged sword. For every medic they defend who's in the wrong, there's situations where they actually serve a purpose - such as raising public awareness of how there simply aren't enough paramedics for the city of Toronto. Sure the timing sucks, but paramedics working for Toronto and others have been in the media warning the public about exactly that prior to this incident.

    The sad truth is that it's just not attention grabbing until its bad news. That's the way people work. Otherwise it's all about politics and money, which steers City council away from hiring more paramedics.
  3. mbt posted on 03/20/2013 09:35 AM
    THen they came, refused to splint my leg believing that nothing much was wrong with it because it was not swelling up and it dangled as they carried me onto the stretcher
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