‘Out of service’: Alberta man says he was denied urgent care by ambulance

CALGARY – An Alberta man says when he tried to flag down paramedics to help his mother, who was in need of urgent care, he was told the ambulance was not in service.

Sonny Randall Strawberry was driving his mother from Calgary to O’Chiese First Nation a few days ago after she was in town for a visit.

He says they were having a fairly normal conversation about her visit when she all of a sudden stopped making sense.

“We got to O’Chiese, my reserve, and we’re passing our local gas station and she just started talking crazy talk, like weird talk and not making sense. And she grabbed her chest,” he recalls.

He says she looked lost and confused and pulled over to check on her.

“She got into a seizure and your eyes rolled back in and she just stopped and I thought she died right there,” he said.

“[I remember thinking] ‘What am I gonna do? Where am I gonna get help?’ You know, all these things rushing through my mind. ‘What am I gonna do? This cannot happen.'”

Strawberry called 911 and dispatch told him there was an emergency vehicle at the gas station–but Strawberry says there was no ambulance to be seen.

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That’s when he decided to drive to the nearest hospital, which is in Rocky Mountian House.

On his way out of O’Chiese, he saw two ambulances. He flagged one down, got out of his car, and shouted for help for his mother.

“The first one said, ‘I’m out of service.'”

He caught the exchange on video and posted it to Facebook. He says he tried his luck with the second ambulance only to get the same response.

“I was crying and scared. I thought I was alone. And I thought she was dead beside me.”

He carried on his way toward Rocky Mountain House when he spotted a third ambulance.

Strawberry flagged it down and the paramedics inside rushed his mother to the hospital.

His mother is now recovering at home, but he says while he went to visit her in the hospital, staff profiled him.

“I noticed staff and nurses of the Rocky General Hospital pointing fingers at me to the guard. And the guard came to my car [and asked me] why am I bringing drugs and alcohol here?”

“I didn’t know he was going to ask that question.”

He says he’s been discriminated against before, and even refused care, but not at this level before.

CityNews reached out to Lakeside EMS for a response on the matter, in which they replied:

“Lakeside EMS has viewed the video posted on Facebook, and we want to issue our sincerest apologies to the Strawberry family for the miscommunications involved in this rapidly unfolding medical situation.

We have spoken to both paramedics involved.

The paramedic in the first encounter was returning an ambulance following repairs. The ambulance was not equipped with all of its medical equipment or medications and was due to be restocked. When the paramedic referenced the ambulance as “out of service”, that is what was being referred to.

Mr. Strawberry then went to leave but the paramedic can be heard on video telling him “hang on hang on” and honking to get his attention.

Mr. Strawberry encountered the second ambulance and asked for their help. The paramedic driving that ambulance asks “what’s going on”, and indicated he would pull over to the side of the road.

Due to the position of Mr. Strawberry’s mother inside the car, she was not visible to either of the two paramedics, who believed Mr. Strawberry was referring to someone at a nearby residence.

Lakeside is reaching out to the Strawberry family directly and to members of the O’Chiese First Nation.”

Alberta Health Services has also responded, saying it too is investigating the incident.

-with files from Angela Stewart, Stefanie Lasuik