Lora Sonier wants an apology from Health and Wellness Minister Randy Delorey.
The Fort Lawrence resident gave birth by C-section to a baby boy, Emmett, Aug. 21 at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre. Shortly after he was born the baby developed breathing problems and was having difficulty maintaining normal oxygen levels.
Several hours later, shortly after noon, the decision was made to transport Emmett via helicopter to the neonatal intensive care unit at the Moncton Hospital.
Her husband, Peter, went to Moncton to be with the baby and she was told an ambulance would soon follow, by 3:30 p.m., to take her there as well.
It never showed up.
“I knew it wasn’t coming,” Sonier said. “The nurse kept coming in every two hours to say an ambulance was coming, but I knew it wasn’t. I was so frustrated because I didn’t know how my baby was doing and I was waiting for an ambulance I knew wasn’t ever going to come.
“My best friend was there, and she was trying to be the voice of optimism, but I knew. I’d been through this before.”
It wasn’t until the obstetrician gave permission later that night Sonier and her husband, who had since returned from Moncton, were able to join their newborn son in the New Brunswick city.
What’s frustrating to her is this is not the first time it happened.
When their previous son, Wyatt, was born in August 2013, he was also sent to Moncton soon after birth and she was left in Amherst waiting for an ambulance. The family also has two daughters, Paige, born in 2012, and Penny, born in 2015.
“When Wyatt was born I was all alone in the hospital after everybody left. I had no family or friends with me. I remembered that feeling of being alone, so this time I refused people to leave me,” she said.
It wasn’t until the next day she got to Moncton to see Wyatt.
This time, when she and her husband first arrived in Moncton she at first refused admission into the maternity unit until she saw her baby.
“I wanted him in my arms,” she said.
Both she and Emmett were released from the Moncton hospital two days later and both are doing fine. That hasn’t quelled her frustration and anger at the system.
While she was in the hospital waiting for the ambulance that would never come, she reached out to Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin through Facebook.
The MLA said in a news release Sonier’s story is an example of the health care crisis in the province.
“This woman missed precious bonding between a mother and her child — time she won’t ever get back,” Smith-McCrossin said. “The Liberal government needs to open their eyes and realize that ambulances are the difference between life and death. If there’s such a shortage that they can’t transport a mother separated from her baby, how can they explain what will happen when the situation is life or death?”
The MLA raised the issue in the legislature on Oct. 11, asking the minister in Question Period to ensure ambulances will be available when needed.
Delorey responded ambulance availability is a priority he has stressed with Emergency Health Services, the Nova Scotia Health Authority and the IWK Children’s Hospital.
“One of the predominant themes, but not the only one, when having a discussion as to why there’d be a challenge with ambulance availability in some communities at specific points of time is ambulance offload times. We’ve seen lots of improvements in six months since that work began and we look forward to seeing that work continued,” Delorey said in the legislature.
Smith-McCrossin responded offload times was not an issue. A paramedic told her through private message EHS did not properly staff enough ambulances in the area that night.
“Mothers should not be separated from their newborns, especially when their newborn is in a life-threatening condition” the MLA said in the legislature.
She questioned the minister what his department is doing to ensure Medavie, the company responsible for EHS in Nova Scotia, has proper ambulance service available when they’re needed.
The minister said everyone agrees about the importance of the emergency system and ambulances and paramedics being available when needed. He said as offload times are improved the situation will get better.
“By improving the offload times there have been hundreds of hours in shifts saved in just the last six months, which means those ambulance that were not waiting at a hospital to transition patients into the care of a hospital were back in the community providing that same care,” Delorey said. “The priority in the EHS system is to ensure ambulances do move around the province to ensure they are there to respond to emergencies.”
That response has Sonier furious with the minister.
“After hearing his response to Ms. Smith-McCrossin’s question I was angry because I’m better than that,” she said, adding she doesn’t blame the paramedics she considers the frontline workers who are being left to bear the brunt of people’s frustration.
Her next child, if there is one, won’t be born in Nova Scotia.
“If we have another baby it will be born in Moncton,” she said. “I just don’t have any faith in the system here.”
