Canadian Healthcare - D.O.A.
Another day, another news story:
canada.com
Two ambulance crews refused to take dying Toronto baby to hospital: parents
LOUISE ELLIOTT
TORONTO (CP) - As a baby boy lay dying of bacterial meningitis in his mother's arms, Toronto paramedics told his parents this was "the first and last time" they would take the child to hospital for something as trivial as an ear infection, the father said Saturday.
It was the second time emergency staff visited the family's east-end apartment on Feb. 3, and it was the second time they failed to do their job, Seevaratnam Vijayaratnam said.
"They said, 'Don't call anymore - this the first and last time - don't call anymore like this,' " said the distraught and angry father, as his wife, Jeyarani, cried intermittently on the couch beside him.
"Then (one paramedic) said, 'If you have heart attack problem or breathing problem (call an ambulance), otherwise you shouldn't call ambulance."
The province's deputy chief coroner, Dr. Jim Cairns, and the city's Emergency Medical Service are investigating the events leading to the baby's death early Feb. 4.
Earlier the previous evening, an ambulance crew responded to the couple's first 911 call, examined 18-month-old Methusan, and then failed to take him to hospital, Cairns said Friday.
"We consider that a significant issue and we are looking into the dynamics of how that happened," he said.
The medical service is conducting an internal investigation into "every aspect of the call," says general manager Ron Kelusky.
Rick Boustead, a spokesman for Toronto Emergency Medical Service, called the family's allegations "disturbing," but says he cannot comment during the investigation except to say "there was a lot more to (the case) than the first visit by the ambulance attendants."
Despite suggestions in some media reports that a language barrier may have caused confusion between the paramedics and the baby's parents, Vijayaratnam had no problem communicating during a lengthy interview with The Canadian Press on Saturday.
Vijayaratnam said both sets of paramedics knew that he and his wife wanted the child to go to hospital immediately.
"We didn't call the ambulance for an opinion - we needed to go to hospital," he said. "They didn't listen to us. They failed to do their job."
The couple, who came to Canada 13 years ago from Sri Lanka, said a crew of three paramedics - two men and a woman - responded to the first 911 call around 9 p.m. on Feb. 3. They did a brief examination and learned the baby had been taking antibiotics for four days and that a doctor's appointment was scheduled the next day.
Vijayaratnam says they were told the hospital would "not like it" if the baby was brought in and that it would take two days for the antibiotics to kick in.
"(They said) they going to waste their time (taking the child to hospital)," he said, adding he and his wife begged them to take their child to the Hospital for Sick Children.
The paramedics replied, "that's not our area," Vijayaratnam said.
A few hours later, Methusan was transferred to Sick Kids by desperate emergency room staff at Toronto East General Hospital. He died at Sick Children's.
Under the Ontario Ambulance Act, paramedics cannot refuse to transport a patient unless they have consent of the patient or guardian, who are asked to sign the ambulance call report.
As they were leaving, the first paramedics requested Vijayaratnam's name, and asked him to sign a form, he said.
"They say give your last name and first name, and sign here," he said. "I signed it - I was upset."
The paramedics didn't explain what the form was for, or why they were asking him to sign it, Vijayaratnam said.
Jeyarani, who worked as a nurse in Sri Lanka, said she knew before the first crew arrived that something was dreadfully wrong with her baby when he tried to take a drink but could not swallow, screamed and cried unceasingly, and put his hand to his neck and shook his head.
When Jeyarani pointed these symptoms out to the first paramedics, they said they were caused by an ear infection - a doctor's diagnosis made earlier that week.
"I said the baby touched the neck and shakes - that I think he had pain in neck and couldn't swallow," she said. "I asked if there was anything wrong with neck.
"They said, 'that is ear pain - that's why he's crying and that's why he's touching his neck,"' she said.
Bacterial meningitis, a potentially deadly infection which inflames the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, is characterized at the onset by severe headache, stiffness of the neck, irritability, malaise and restlessness.
The first paramedic crew listened to the child's heart and chest using a stethoscope, but did not look in his ears or mouth, the parents said.
Upon arrival, the second crew - made up of two men - never touched or examined the child, Jeyarani said.
Instead, they laughed and joked at scribbles made on the wall by the couple's first child, seven-year-old son Thuluxan, Vijayaratnam said.
"They were pointing to the wall, and said 'see the wall?"' he said, incredulous. "As if we called the ambulance crew for an opinion about the wall."
Finally the second crew agreed to take the baby to hospital, saying: "OK, we can take you there if you want,"' Vijayaratnam said.
When they arrived at Toronto East General, Methusan fell unconscious, and nurses and doctors asked the couple why they waited so long to bring the boy in, Jeyarani said.
"(East General staff) did everything best," she said, her voice breaking. "Now they told us, after 20 minutes, baby very sick, maybe . . . die." |
