Injured woman left without ambulance service: Son-in-law
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/11/2021 (1405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Douglas man is demanding answers after an ambulance failed to show up for his mother-in-law who broke her arm, he says.
Robert Lukianchuk, a retired truck driver, says his mother-in-law, Stella Zimmerman, waited nearly two full days for an ambulance that never came. Lukianchuk had to bring her to a hospital instead.
Zimmerman lives at the care home attached to the Rossburn Health Centre. Lukianchuk says he was forced to take her to the Russell Health Centre, approximately 25 minutes away, after she fell on Nov. 12, breaking her arm and dislocating her shoulder. An ambulance was called to take her for treatment, but it never arrived.
“After 40-plus hours of her being in pain and her injuries, I went there, picked her up and brought her to Russell,” Lukianchuk told the Sun.
While waiting at the Russell Health Centre, he said he saw an empty ambulance sitting in a shed. He said he was told the ambulance service was delayed due to the stormy weather over the weekend.
“I have to say, of all my years as a driver — and [I’ve] gone through some bad weather — I didn’t need any of my experience handling that road on Sunday. It was perfectly fine to drive on by then,” he said.
According to Environment Canada, Sunday’s weather in the area was mostly cloudy with temperatures around -4 C. Road conditions were reported as clear or partially snow-covered.
According to a statement from a Shared Health spokesperson, who is responsible for ambulance service in Manitoba, EMS continued to respond to higher-acuity calls in the region throughout the weekend. However, poor road conditions on Friday and Saturday prompted a delay in a number of low-acuity inter-facility transfers that were deemed safe to wait until the weather improved. This resulted in a backlog of these types of transfers when road conditions returned to normal on Sunday.
Throughout Sunday, available crews worked through the backlog and responded to primary 911 calls. This increased activity — combined with some EMS staffing challenges in the area — created significantly longer wait times for low-acuity patients awaiting transfer to another facility.
The backlog was supposed to have been cleared by Monday night.
“We want to acknowledge this family’s frustrations, express our sympathies for what they’ve gone through and wish the patient well in her recovery,” the statement read.
Lukianchuk said Zimmerman is back at her home in Rossburn. He said she is scheduled to come to Brandon for tests and determine the possibility of surgery.
» kmckinley@brandonsun.com