Ambulance crew took 35 minutes to get into apartment of dying woman

The last person Tracey Gundersen spoke to was an ambulance call-taker while she frantically begged for help.

It was 8:14 a.m.on Nov. 8, 2018.

"My groin. It's bleeding. Profusely!" Gundersen, 56, stammered in a recording her family obtained througha freedom of information request.

"We're gonna get you lots of help," the call-taker promised.

Paramedics arrived at her low-incomehousing complex at Powell Street and Gore Avenue on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in lessthan five minutes.

But it took them more than 35 minutes to make it to her sixth-floor suite because of extra security features in thebuilding, including a locked elevator. Firefighters had to be dispatched to the scene to help paramedics inside.

Gundersen was found unresponsive with no pulse.

Her daughter, Chelsea Brent,blames a new emergency dispatch policyfor the delay.

Thepolicy prioritizescalls witha colour-coding system that does not send firefighters with paramedics in all cases but it is firefighters, not paramedics, withmaster keys to multi-unit buildings like Gundersen's.

Fire crews were not sent to Gundersen's call right away. Brent believes if they had been, her mothermay have survived.

"I don'thave a word for it," Brentsaid in an exclusive interview."It blows my mind. It makes me beyond angry and I don't trust the system."

As a 911 call-taker,Brentis familiar with how the emergency systemworks.

She wants answers about her mother's deathand B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix has ordered an independent review.

New policy

Under the new system,purple and red calls are the most critical andthe only ones to get ambulance and fire response automatically.

Gundersen's call was tagged code orange:ambulance only, no fire.

B.C. Emergency Health Services explains the new dispatch policy in a promotional video:

Brent said her mother had ongoing issues withrectal and uterine prolapse conditions where the organs lose their normal attachments inside the body.

"I guess they deemed it to be obviously an emergency, but not life-threatening at the time," Brent said.

Two minutes into the call, the call-taker asked Gundersento hold a towel on the wound.

"Is the bleeding controlled or is it bleeding through?"

"No!" she screamed, terrified. "It's not!"

"OK, ma'am, you don't need to get rude with me, here," the call-taker responded firmly.

Gundersen apologized.

The call-takeroffered words of understanding.

"I'm all dizzy in the head," Gundersenpleaded, four minutes and 30 seconds into the call.

"Just hang in there with me, we're almost there," he replied.

It took paramedics 11 minutes and multiple buzzings of Gundersen'ssuite to get through the main door of her building.

Once inside, the crewencountered another locked door and a locked elevator in the building's common area.

They tried to callGundersen again, but got no answer.

At 8:32 a.m., paramedicscalled for a routine, non-emergencyresponse from fire crews to unlock doors and accessthesixth floor.

"There should be no reason fire shouldn't be attending," Chelsea Brent said.

"They made assumptions that she was fine. I don't know if it was assumptions based on her being a Downtown Eastside person or what it was."

'The system really does work'

B.C. Emergency Health Services senior provincial executive director Neil Lilley said he could not discuss specifics of thecase.

Speaking generally, he said the new colour classification system gets help faster to patients who need it most.

He also said it's not true that fire crews would be dispatched with every single call under the old system.

Even under the new system, if paramedics can't arrive in 10 minutes, fire crews are sent out.

"What we don't want is too [many] resources tied up on one incident where they are going to arrive approximately the same time," Lilley said.

"The system really does work."

Vancouver FireRescue Services information officer Jonathan Gormick says under the new system, the medicalcall volume has dropped 30 per cent.

Five minutes and 15 seconds into Gundersen's call, the call-taker kept promising help was coming.

"I'm all blurry," Gundersen told him. "I can't put any pressure on it."

She finally snapped, "I'm dying!"

Provincial government review

Brent hopes the promised review willprovide answers about why her mother had to bleed to death alone.

BCEHS did aninternal review of the matter, which led to a note inits system about Gundersen'sbuilding having access issues.

From now on, BCEHS says,fire crews should be dispatched to all calls at thatbuilding.

Brent can't say for sure whether dispatching firefighters right away would have saved her mother, butshe doesn't want anyone else's last minutes to be like her mother's.

Six minutes and 29 secondsinto Gundersen's last call,she was trailing off.

She begged,"Please hurry."