Keep in mind that so far, we only have the statements of the victim’s brother and some meaningless bureaucratic blather from a government flunky.

Quebec paramedics refused to help dying Maine man after snowmobile crash, brother says

The brother of an American tourist who died after a snowmobile crash north of Quebec City earlier this month says paramedics refused to help his brother because they didn’t want to go to the scene of the accident, a wooded area three kilometres from the nearest road.

Glenn Dumont, 69, a former college football star from Maine, died March 2 near the town of L’Etape, 100 kilometres north of Quebec City, after his snowmobile collided with another.

Dumont’s brother, Lewis Pelletier, was with him.

“I think it’s absolutely terrible. They really dropped the ball,” Pelletier said in an interview with CBC News.

I understand the concerns with provider safety. It may have been reasonable for them to stop at the trailhead and wait for more people and equipment to come to the scene.

One of the other snowmobilers headed towards the nearest road, three kilometres away, to meet the ambulance.

“He came back within 15 minutes, and he said, ‘The ambulance is at the end of the trail. It’s three minutes away, but they refuse to come up to the scene,'” Pelletier said.

The paramedics who responded apparently said government regulations prevented them from going to the scene.

Again, this might have been a reasonable approach. The question that I don’t see answered is why they paramedics didn’t call for help. I don’t think there is one paramedic I’ve ever worked with or met who hasn’t had to call for more help on a complicated and screwed up call. Mostly we don’t have technical rescue expertise. Even paramedics that are also fire fighters call for the big red trucks when they need help. There’s no indication that these paramedics called for help or did anything but sit at the side of the road.

For two hours. Two hours? Two fucking hours? I can’t imagine why they would do that if they weren’t waiting for help.

There afore mentioned bureaucratic blather,

Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette said Tuesday a coroner will investigate Dumont’s death.  

“We all need to understand that in this province paramedics do have the possibility to provide services on snowmobile trails, but only under specific conditions where they have to make sure security is there,” Barette told reporters at the National Assembly.

“Light has to be shed on this event to see if things went according to protocol,” he continued.

To paraphrase a great trauma surgeon I once worked with, “Gaetan, by definition things didn’t go according to protocol. The patient died.” As an experienced paramedic I understand that even when things go totally according to plan patients die. Especially trauma patients. There are a few keys to increasing the likelihood of survival for patients that have a chance. One is rapid transport. That obviously failed. I know it’s fashionable to tut tut the “Golden Hour”, but the underlying principle is sound. The sooner an injured person is in the Operating Room, the higher their chances of survival. Another principle is to keep the patient warm and sufficiently oxygenated. You can’t do that if you’re sitting in your warm ambulance 3 KM away from the patient drinking Latte. Or whatever they were doing instead of humping their sorry asses into the scary woods to help the patient.

There was a French speaking Quebecois that helped by talking on the phone to 9-1-1 and the paramedics that responded. They still refused to come and assist, but at least they did give them some blankets.

This needs a serious investigation, to say the least. It may be a system fault, it might be a case of lazy paramedics. Either way, something needs to be changed.

There is 13 minutes audio interview with Lewis Pelletier. The interview gives several details of the event that are even more damning than the printed report. It’s well worth listening to the entire interview.

If Pelletier’s comments are accurate, the lack or response goes beyond gross negligence.