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The ambulance refused three times in the hours before his death

Patrick* lived with his six children and his wife in the community screaming from Waskaganish. He made a living as a seasonal worker and practiced traditional goose hunting activities.

In the days before his death, the father lived with intense pain. “He stayed at his home and did not go out. He ate little and consumed vodka daily. He was weakened and spent most of his lying time, ”reports the coroner to the file, Me Éric Lépine.

On April 18, 2021, the ills of the father reached a culmination. Around 3 p.m., he collapsed on the floor of his bathroom.

After his fall, Patrick’s relatives first contact the Local Community Service Center (CLSC) to request emergency medical transport. Patrick has been in a bad time for several days.

At the end of the line, the nurse rather suggests them to ensure themselves the transport of Patrick to the CLSC “in order to carry out a better assessment”.

The 49 -year -old man rejects this alternative, explain his relatives, however.

Despite the pain, Patrick “did not want to go to the clinic,” notes the coroner. He fears that a medical consultation with a nurse or a doctor leads her to receive treatments outside the screaming community from Waskaganish.

The night passes and Patrick’s condition deteriorates. Shortly after midnight, two other calls were housed by his relatives, who again demand the arrival of an ambulance.

The nurse considers that he does not have a reason to request the sending of ambulance transport and again suggests to Patrick’s relatives to lead him by their own means, the report indicates.

Sixteen hours later

Sixteen hours after the initial call, the quarantine is found inert by family members, who immediately contact the emergency services.

Required by a public security employee at 7:08 am, the paramedics finally appeared at Patrick’s home – then in cardiorepiratory arrest – at 7:12 a.m. maneuvers are undertaken and the man is transported to the CLSC. “Faced with the complete absence of vital signs”, his death was found at 9:19 am.

A pathological relationship will eventually reveal the presence of “black blood” in the small intestine and Patrick’s colonist, in addition to an excessive accumulation of fat in the liver.

“He died of a high digestive hemorrhage,” said the coroner.

A “communication problem”

The coroner on the file, Me Éric Lépine, underlines that a “communication problem” between the nursing staff of the CLSC and the relatives of Patrick could have a role to play in the absence of care.

He returns, among other things, about the fears that “seemed to experience” Patrick “seemed to be the idea of undergoing medical evacuation outside the screaming community. “Even if the patient is free to accept or refuse care, it is more prudent to ensure the validity of his consent by direct contact with the patient,” he said.

The CRI of Health and Social Services (CCSSS) of the James Bay, of which the Waskaganish CLSC is a part, must not only review the criteria to justify ambulance transport, but also question the reasons which motivated the refusal of treatment, recommends Lepine.

A protocol must now be put in place to “improve the quality of user care in such circumstances”, he concludes.

*Fictive name

jolie.whitman
jolie.whitman
Jolie’s D.C. bureaucracy explainer turns FOIA docs into bite-size slideshows with GIF annotations.
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