Calgary woman waited 4 hours for ambulance after breaking her femur

Calgary woman Grace Caron broke her femur after falling down the stairs earlier this month and had to wait four hours for an ambulance to take her to the hospital.

“What I experienced is really inhumane,” Caron said.

Caron says the time she spent waiting was the most painful time of her life.

“I can’t recall experiencing that level of pain over a sustained period of time,” Caron said.

On the night she fell, June 5, Caron was trying to get to her basement to do laundry.

“I lost my footing somehow, about three steps from the bottom and fell very hard, landing on my right hip. At that point I knew that I broke [a bone] — that something was seriously wrong,” said Caron.

Caron called her neighbour at 7 a.m. who came to help within 2 minutes. They soon discovered she couldn’t get up or move, and decided to call 911.

“The dispatcher asked a few questions, as they do, and basically had advised that it would be a little while — that they were backed up,” Caron said. “But if we hadn’t seen or heard from an ambulance in an hour to call back.”

An hour passed and nobody arrived, so she called again just after 8 p.m., and then again just before 9:30 p.m.

Her sister advised her to call Health Link – Alberta Health Service’s 24/7 general health service number.

“Three minutes after that call ended, we did get a call back from 911,” said Caron.

She says once the paramedics arrived, she received great care and was taken to South Health Campus where she had a surgery the next day.

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Caron says she recognizes good care, as a working nurse of 46 years.

“I spoke with staff at the hospital and the common theme was that what I experienced is really inhumane,” Caron said.

June 5 is the same day an 86-year-old woman died in Calgary after waiting 30 minutes for an ambulance following a dog attack. The 911 call was initially deemed non-life threatening which lead to a longer wait — the incident is being investigated by the Health Quality Council of Alberta.

Caron says she’s also concerned about the way EMS calls are handled in the province, she says the calls were short, when she was promised she would receive a call-back, it didn’t happen, and her case wasn’t taken as seriously as it should have been.

“The final discussion I had with the dispatcher ended with her saying: ‘well I don’t know if its helpful but at least you’re not bleeding’ — with kind of a chuckle at the end,” said Caron.

An AHS spokesperson tells CityNews “at the time of this call, ambulances were busy with a number of urgent calls, including some that were life-threatening.”

Caron hopes that she can raise awareness, and make others feel like they can share their stories too — to end the tragic trend of long ambulance wait times in Alberta.

“That four hours could be the difference between life and death,” Caron said.