A mother from BC’s Lower Mainland is speaking out after her 11-year-old had to wait 41 hours for an ambulance after a heartbreaking suicide attempt.
CTV News is referring to the mother as Sarah and her child as Cameron, both pseudonyms to protect the young patient’s identity.
Looking back on the family’s experience days later, Sarah still struggles to understand how her child could wait so long during a time of emotional and medical crisis.
“It’s absolutely horrifying,” she said. “They were getting no care, no advice, nothing. They were just sitting in a chair.”
The family’s sad story began in the early hours of last Thursday when Cameron, who was staying at Sarah’s ex-husband’s home in Langley, tried to kill himself using prescription drugs.
The panicked father rushed them to Langley Memorial Hospital, knowing the facility does not have an adolescent psychiatric unit, but focused on avoiding the worst-case scenario of a serious overdose.
Cameron was evaluated, treated and placed on a temporary mental health certification. The family said hospital staff initially estimated Cameron would be transferred to Surrey Memorial Hospital to see a psychiatrist sometime between midnight Thursday and 10 a.m. Friday.
Sarah went home to Delta that night, hoping to meet her child at Surrey Memorial the next morning so they could begin the separate but vital mental health aspect of Cameron’s treatment with a psychiatrist.
Instead, she woke up and was surprised to learn that her child remained at Langley.
“They still hadn’t moved, but (the staff) had kicked them out of the room they were in,” Sarah said.
Cameron remained nauseous and disoriented, the parents said, but was placed in the waiting area of the adult psychiatric unit by staff who believed an ambulance – the only permitted method of transport for an under-certified patient – would arrive soon.
Cameron would stay there for another full day and night before finally being transferred at 5pm on Saturday, exposed in the meantime to a stream of adult patients coming in and out of various states of mental distress.
“This 11-year-old child, who is in a mental health crisis, has to deal with screaming adults,” Sarah said. “We keep asking them, who can we call? What can we do? And they say, ‘Well, there’s nothing we can do.’
“HAPPENS EVERY DAY”#
Situations like the one Cameron’s family experienced are upsetting, but not unique, according to Ambulance Paramedics and Dispatchers of BC
Association president Troy Clifford said paramedics know all too well when the people they serve are left waiting on a priority line, where they are at constant risk of being on the line for a life-or-death emergency.
“Nurses just want to do their job, they want to treat and get people to the hospital,” Clifford said.
“These delays are horrendous and unfortunately happen every day. Most of these are not tragic outcomes, but these are people – relatives and family members – and when they don’t get an ambulance, it’s hard to watch. I take it very personally.”
Clifford said despite promises from the province to address critical staffing issues at BC Ambulance Service, many problems remain.
There are about 4,500 paramedics and dispatchers across the province, and the union credits the government with converting hundreds of part-time to full-time positions to ease some of the pressure.
“We’ve gone from about 70 percent on-call, part-time and 30 percent full-time to about 55 percent full-time and 45 percent part-time, so we’ve seen that flow of resources and funding,” Clifford said.
“But conservatively, we estimate we could use another 1,000 paramedics in the system to meet the demands we’re seeing.”
According to the union, there are still many nights where between 20 percent and 50 percent of ambulances sit idle in various communities – both urban and rural – due to insufficient staffing.
Clifford estimated that about 40 per cent of ambulances in the Fraser Health area were out of service between Thursday and Saturday, while Sarah’s family had repeatedly promised to be taken care of soon.
While stuck at Langley Memorial Hospital, the family noticed a line of three ambulances parked outside as they waited for a ride.
“When you want your child transported and you see all these empty ambulances, it’s kind of maddening, right?” Sarah said.
24 PERCENT OF POSITIONS EMPTY
Both Fraser Health and the Ministry of Health have raised questions about the family’s delayed transport to BC Emergency Health Services, which said it is looking into the circumstances of the incident.
“We are aware that at the time, this patient was in stable condition at the hospital and that our paramedics were responding and transporting other patients with more urgent and potentially life-threatening conditions,” a spokesperson said in an email, adding that “The first ambulance that became available was assigned.”
BCEHS said it received the first request for an ambulance around 11 a.m. Friday and the patient was transported about 30 hours later.
Officials noted that 204 full-time paramedic positions were posted in September – jobs Clifford said were used to replace existing part-time positions – along with 50 new fill-in positions and that BCEHS annual spending increased to $559 million from $424 million dollars compared to the last five years.
However, the province acknowledged that about 24 percent of the positions remain vacant.
The union cited several factors affecting hiring, including competition with the private sector. Pipelines and other major infrastructure projects are required to have medics on site, and Clifford said those positions can be much more lucrative than working for the government.
“They’re all hiring the same people we’re trying to hire,” he said.
Potential future paramedics are the kind of people who might also consider a career in policing or firefighting, which Clifford said also pay significantly more.
Sarah said she understands how limited health care resources are and that every hospital employee she dealt with was kind and respectful. Staff encouraged the family to file a formal complaint, which Sarah said they plan to do once they have some breathing space.
“They were good,” he said. “One of the nurses came back on second shift and they saw my ex-husband still sitting there and they were shocked that we were still there.”
As the hours passed in the waiting area of Langley’s adult psychiatric unit, Cameron was also offered a bed, but declined – feeling too exposed and preferring to sleep next to their father in two chairs pushed together. The staff also gave the child Ativan when they started experiencing panic attacks.
However, Sarah said it was heartbreaking to see her child waiting for the care she urgently needed. And while the family begins their journey through ongoing treatment, Sarah wanted to share her story in the hope that something might change and others might be spared a similar experience.
“Isn’t there something we can do here?”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, these are some resources available:
Suicide Prevention Canada Helpline (1-833-456-4566) Center for Addiction and Mental Health (1-800 463-2338) Crisis Services Canada (1-833-456-4566 or text 45645) Children’s Helpline (1-800-668-6868)
