Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services - Cambridge, Ontario

Barry P.

My wife had a headache, nausea and continuosly vomitting and was very dizzy she could n9t stand.
Text book signs of a stroke.
We called an ambulance on monday.
The ambuance came and was told of the sumptons and took her to St.Marys hospital while Grand River Hospital has the care for strokes.
St. Marys made he sit upright for 6 hrs while dhe continously vomitted.
St. Marys were told of her symptons and still no urgent care.
The Dr. Looked at her and gave her anti nausea pills, tylanel and iv fluids.She was feeling better with all those meds and they srnt her home.
The meds wore off and then she started vomitting again with a massive headache and dizxy.
She refused to go back to the hodpotsl as that was pure torture.
Wwd. I had to take hervto yhe hospital.
They msde her sit upright in emergancy for amother 6 hrs.
When the Dr. Looked at her we insisted the take a CAT Scan.
Tgey found that she had a stroke iand her brain wsd bleeding.
Finally they sdmitted herjust in time.
Paramedics failed, hospital fsiled twice,and the Dr fsiled.
Our Health System is Broke snd nobody cares.

jennifer G.

I was very fortunate to have an amazing team of paramedics on November 3 and 4 who took phenomenal care of me at home and at the hospital! Despite being deaf, they were able to find other ways of communicating with me, and since I suffer from convulsions and terrified of going to the ER, they stayed by my side for an hour, kept me comfortable with ice, provided updates to the staff when the pain increased, until I was transferred a bed. Thank you so much for providing IV pain and anti-nausea meds to keep me stable until I was seen by an ER doctor. I have had so many bad experiences at CMH that it takes a LOT of convincing for me to call the paramedics and go to the hospital. You helped me feel more at ease with the situation even though I was in a lot of pain due to the delay of my surgery. Thank you so much for being so awesome!

Deb C.

On July 13, 2017 I managed to dislocate my ankle and break my fibula. Unfortunately, I was in my lower level, with no way to get up the stairs to open the front door for the Paramedics.
This call was attended by the Police, Fire Dept. and of course, the Paramedics.
I believe it was the fire dept. that was able to get the front door open - and done with minimal damage, which was appreciated.
The Paramedics, Jason and Carrie were out of this world amazing! I was pretty panicked because my foot was all over the place and I was in a lot of pain. The lovely Carrie, unbeknownst to me, had placed a call to her supervisor, Kim, to attend the scene and administer morphine. The calming nature of these excellent paramedics helped to keep me calm and less afraid.
I could not be more appreciative of the excellent, gentle care that you took of me. Thank you Supervisor Kim, Carrie and Jason. You are all a credit to your fine profession.

Norm A.

I am staying at The Heidelberg Inn this weekend and just witnessed the brother or sisterhood whichever is correct in your profession. Amazing!! A fella on the top floor has some issues that are combined with his health and your paramedics and fire service were just incredible in dealing with him! So very nice to see as I had met him earlier today and was a handful then. Special shout out to the driver of SUV #5051 for the care he took in sanitizing his vehicle for a long time after the fact. So incredible to see these young folks work, I apologize, but “Hero’s “was taken on the 11th. Please pick a suitable word which applies . Ty for doing what yous do and I know I’ll be safe if ever back down this way and trouble hits.
Sincerely Norm Atkins
Holyrood Ontario (near Lucknow)

Tina L.

My brother lives in Cambridge. My brother had phoned the ambulance the day his symptoms were unbearable. He hadn’t slept for two days, throbbing headache, his face was very red, puking, and no appetite. The paramedics said he was “stable” and basically said “we can bring you to the hospital if you want, but you will be waiting in emerg for a couple hours”. At that point my brother was discouraged to go to the hospital. We convinced him this was not normal, but he proceeded to say the paramedics cleared him and he was okay. 3 days passed and he hadn’t slept at all. He phoned the paramedics again, and a small, blonde women was EXTREMELY ignorant. His main complaint was his headache was getting worse and hasn’t eat and slept at all. He also mentioned that he does not remember the past couple days. The women rolled her eyes and said “another one with a headache” and told my brother, “you know stress is a common cause for headaches”, once again discouraging my brother. Luckily, he said he needed to go to the hospital, whether or not this is just a “stress headache”.

We went to the hospital and it was confirmed that my brother had a ruptured brain aneurysm. According to the doctor, if he had staid home for another day, he could have been dead.

I am also a health care worker in the community and I need to call the ambulance on multiple occasions. The attitude that they would give me is so unprofessional. We are healthcare professionals and we need to work together as a team. You are not more “superior” than me. My patients would tell me something is not right, and yet the paramedics would say otherwise. 95% of the time that I call the ambulance on my patients, I find out from family that they are admitted in hospital. Knowing this is extremely satisfying to me, that my patient and I, made the right decision, despite how irritated and rude the paramedics were.

Luckily, my brother is doing well. He had surgery and now will need to stay in hospital for a minimum of 3 weeks, as part of his recovery. After this incident with my brother, I’d rather drive any family member to the hospital my self. Paramedics need to understand that each person calling are scared, sick and vulnerable. These people look up to paramedics for help.

My lesson to anybody that has read this, is if you know something is not right, and the paramedic tell you otherwise, just go. You are the only person that knows that something is not right. Despite them being “health care professionals”, clearly they do not know everything.

Vanessa C.

On Sunday April 1 around 1 am, 2 paramedics came to a Kitchener location to attend my mom. My mother has paraplegia and had many health issues at the moment. I explained the situation as we have experience with her health. The one female paramedic (short, black hair maybe Asian) was a real ignorant, rude unprofessional person. She asked my mom how she gets on the bed and usually when she is ok she can do it herself, however she was shaking with a really high fever someone had to help her and the paramedic insisted on my mom getting on the stretcher herself!. I had to call my husband to come and get her on the stretcher (120 pound woman). Then kept asking my mom questions about feeling/movements and when my mom said " i cant feel, i am paraplegic'' for a while and the parademic kept asking the same question in a different way, and when we called her out on it, she kept saying " i understand" with a horrendous attitude. When my mom was on the stretcher the paramedic asked her if the security belt was too tight on her legs and we all said... nooo she cant feel!. Her answer again was "i understand!" with an attitude, then i said to her " If you did, you would know that". Her partner didn't say a word the entire time, she looked embarrassed, and the rude one seemed like the bully. She needs training on paraplegia , emotional intelligence and lotsss of empathy.

Thankfully my mom is fine and back home now, she stayed in the hospital for a week.

Ghada K.

I'd like to thank the two professional paramedics who responded to my call last Sunday, they were too caring and polite. Unfortunately I don't know their names but I really appreciate their kindness.

Brandy M.

I was camping at Bingeman's on the 29th of June and had a diabetic attack. The 3 paramedics were very kind and understanding. They also made sure everyone was calm .