Woman dies after long ORNGE ambulance delay, family says

It took more than six hours for ORNGE to figure out if land or air ambulance would pick up a critically ill Barry’s Bay woman and transport her to an Ottawa hospital, her family says.

Last Wednesday, Judy Dearman lay in a Barry’s Bay hospital waiting to be transferred to Ottawa, said her husband Clyde Dearman.

But confusion as to when and how his wife would be transported to a large urban hospital prevented her from getting the care she needed, he said.

“The thing is, she lay there for six hours,” Dearman said. Barry’s Bay is in the Madawaska Valley, two hours west of Ottawa. “It was ridiculous. It was too long a wait.”

This is the second time in a week ORNGE has been unable to respond quickly to an emergency call, charged Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees in the legislature on Tuesday.

ORNGE is conducting an internal investigation into the Ottawa-area transport and will divulge what it discovers with the Ministry of Health, said James MacDonald, a spokesperson with the air ambulance service.

Lack of staff to fly or respond to calls and maintenance problems with some aircraft has been a consistent issue brought up during the all-party legislative hearings probing ORNGE, a government-funded agency under fire for its business dealings and patient safety.

In Stouffville last week, ORNGE was unable to send a helicopter to a serious car accident because of a lack of staff. In this latest incident, shortly after noon on Wednesday, the medical staff at Barry’s Bay hospital called every 15 minutes looking for transportation, said Dearman, whose wife was suffering from an infection after a colonoscopy.

By mid-afternoon, a local land ambulance was just about to take Dearman to Ottawa when ORNGE called and said she should remain in Barry’s Bay, as they were sending air transport.

After driving to Ottawa, he was told to head back to Barry’s Bay because his wife never left. When he was nearly home, he was told to turn around and head to The Ottawa Hospital.

Eventually, an ORNGE air ambulance did show up along with a land ambulance, said Klees.

More: ORNGE: Air ambulance serviced criticized over Stouffville crash

But by the time Dearman arrived at hospital at 9 p.m. on Wednesday she was barely conscious and experiencing kidney failure. She died Friday.

Klees asked Health Minister Deb Matthews about Dearman’s death.

Matthews cautioned Klees about “jumping to any conclusion” about an incident and added patient safety is the highest priority at ORNGE.

“Every incident is investigated,” she said. “There is a process that the ministry goes through, that ORNGE goes through and, if he so chooses, the coroner goes through to determine if there are any lessons that can be learned.”

The Legislature’s committee hearings into the ORNGE affair resume Wednesday with Luis Navas, a former board member who is expected to explain compensation practices and Maria Renzella, a former ORNGE executive vice-president.

Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Tanya Talaga and Richard Brennan