Ontario mom says she waited over 20 minutes for ambulance after being told toddler's seizure was 'not a priority'
CTV
When Ontario mother Sara Fuda called 911 to get help for her toddler who was suffering from a complex seizure triggered by a fever, she expected paramedics to be there in a matter of minutes. But that didn't happen.
When Bolton, Ont. mother Sara Fuda called 911 to get help for her toddler who was suffering from a complex seizure triggered by a fever, she expected paramedics to be there in a matter of minutes.
The febrile seizure, which occurred on the night of Sept. 6, was the sixth one her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter had experienced since she was diagnosed with the condition just shy of her first birthday.
“She was playing, completely happy, no sign of illness whatsoever… Then I noticed her lips were a bit blue,” Fuda told CP24.com this week.
“Not even a minute later, she started seizing. Because this is her sixth one, I knew what to do. I ran upstairs. I grabbed her seizure medication. I called 911 right away.”
Fuda said that in the past, paramedics always arrived promptly, showing up to her home no later than eight minutes after placing the call.
But this time, Fuda said the dispatcher told her that there wasn’t anyone available to respond right away and that because her daughter was still breathing, the call was not high up on the priority list.
“Her face was turning a bit blue and that has never happened before,” Fuda said. “I was telling her and she kept saying, ‘I’m so sorry, there is no one in the area right now.’”
