A man waiting to be seen by a doctor died after an hour and a half of waiting in the garage of the Trois-Rivières Hospital on Wednesday, a situation denounced by the Syndicat de la Cooperative des ambulanciers de la Mauricie.
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The elderly patient reportedly fell into cardio-respiratory arrest while still in the ambulance nearly two hours after arriving at the hospital.
Health authorities confirmed the patient died while still in the emergency vehicle. However, the paramedics told the triage nurse three times that the patient’s condition was deteriorating.
The nurse would have been overwhelmed. At the same time, six ambulances had been waiting for about two to three hours.
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Not to mention preventable death, the vice-president of the Mauricie Ambulance Cooperative is convinced that the story would have been completely different if the care at the hospital had been done within a more reasonable time.
“We, our work was done, he was taken to the hospital. With us, he was still alive. Maybe he would have died the same, but at least he would have seen a doctor and his chances of survival would have been better,” explained Richard Fournier of the union.
“In reality, when you arrive by ambulance or on foot, it does not de facto guarantee that the person is treated as a priority,” he added.
Last month, paramedics in the Mauricie region denounced the long delay between the arrival of ambulances and the treatment of patients in the emergency room of the Trois-Rivières hospital. They said they were afraid the worst would happen, and that seems to have happened on Wednesday.
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