According to a report from Yahoo News, the family of 24-year-old paramedic Hugo St-Onge, who died in Lévis, Quebec, Canada, after an ambulance failed to arrive in a timely manner, is suing the province’s Health Ministry in the hope that legal action will force them to finally address the need for better emergency medical services.
St-Onge died in 2017 after going into cardiac arrest. An ambulance eventually showed up in 20 minutes—twice as long as the North American standard for response time.
The lack of ambulance services in the municipality located just south of Quebec City is well documented.
One month before he died, St-Onge was among several ho signed an open letter denouncing the lack of ambulance coverage in the Chaudière-Appalaches region. His parents, Johanne Lapointe and Bruno St-Onge, said their son, “Died for nothing.”
St-Onge’s family is suing the Health Ministry, the regional health board for Chaudière-Appalaches and the 911 call center for $520,000.
Ambulance resources in the municipality are so thin that, after paramedics showed up to a home last May, they were dispatched to another call deemed more urgent and left before checking on the woman who needed assistance. She died later that night, also of cardiac arrest.
In July 2020, the coroner’s report found that three ambulances were in the area when St-Onge went into distress. However, they were all busy. The closest available team was found to be 13 kilometers away. Since that report, the province’s Health Ministry has added 16 extra service hours in Lévis. Ambulance workers there say they have put in an addition 160 service hours—10 times more than what the ministry has added.
Both the ministry and the health board have not responded for comment.
