Urgences Santé says they had extra ambulances on the road after Monday's snowfall — but one woman in Pointe Claire wound up lying in the middle of a street for more than an hour and a half while waiting for an ambulance to come to treat her broken ankle late Monday afternoon.
At around 4:30 p.m., the woman in her 60s had taken her car out of her driveway on Queen's Rd. to allow for a snowplow service to do its work. When she tried to get back to her car after the job, she slipped on a patch of ice and fell, breaking her ankle.
Her neighbors, Danny and Sarah Barnoff, tended to her after a passerby made the first 9-1-1 call, putting a blanket over her and directing traffic with a flashlight while she waited in the dark — in the middle of the street.
Danny Barnoff says she didn't want to move because of the pain.
"We just left her there. We actually put a couple of quilts on top of her and gave her some pillows," he told CJAD 800 News. "And eventually, I got a water heater with a couple of extension cords just to keep her warm."
At that time, his wife called 9-1-1 a second time — this time, she informed the dispatcher the woman also had a heart condition.
The ambulance finally came, after more than an hour and a half, and a third 9-1-1 call. And to Barnoff's dismay, it ended up coming from Verdun — during rush hour.
"To say that they sent an ambulance from Verdun, are you kidding me?" he says. "I just don't understand that. That's what really offended me."
Making matters worse, she was taken to Lachine Hospital — twice as far away as Lakeshore Hospital.
"They got her up, put her in a stretcher...and they were going to bring her to Lachine Hospital...even though she requested Lakeshore," Danny Barnoff said.
Urgences Santé spokesperson Benoit Garneau says part of the reason for the long wait was the sheer volume of calls that came in for similar problems.
"On a normal day, we usually get 900 to 1,000 calls." [On Monday], we got 1,300," Garneau said.
Garneau admits the snowfall took the ambulance service by surprise. Nonetheless, they were able to put a few more ambulances on the road and more staff on duty to handle the extra volume in Montreal and Laval — the territory covered by Urgences Santé.
He also noted that the woman's case was designated a Priority 3 call — where the patient was conscious and where her life was not in danger.
"If the situation had changed — or if she had had chest pains [related to her heart condition], it would have become a Priority 1," Garneau said.