Lyn C.
5/5
On the night of February 15th 2025 as the largest snow storm of the winter was already underway bringing limited visibility and snow covered roads I suffered a tachycardia based heart attack in a rural area in Quinte West south of Stirling. Paramedics Sam and Heidi arrived from the base in Stirling in a timely manner considering the weather conditions. They quickly took a ECG and saw that I was in big trouble with my heart. Heidi quickly started an IV and installed pads for paddles as Sam assisted. Then it was show time to get me to the hospital. My condition was deteriorating quickly causing Heidi to raise a concern and Sam to speed up the process with emergency equipment on the ambulance. . When we arrived in Trenton the Trauma Team was ready in the ER and went to work. The teamwork throughout the pandemonium was outstanding. It was touch and go a few times and I nearly died. They kept telling me to keep my eyes open, keep breathing and not to give up. Finally the drugs the trauma team were using started to allow my heart to get under control to some degree, but it was still running dangerous lines of ventricular tachycardia which can be fatal. A request to transport me to the CCU in Kingston was initially denied as they were swamped with heart attack victims who had been shoveling snow. The trauma team doctor in Trenton was not taking no for an answer and appealed to a higher authority since I required the services of a CCU who had the treatment options required to save my life. The outcome from that effort was successful and the news came that Hasting-Quinte Paramedics were on the way to take me to Kingston in the absolute height of the snow storm. There was Paramedic Jake driving, his partner Brittany and a student paramedic named Stacey. Also in the ambulance was Paula, a veteran ICU nurse from Trenton memorial. There was a variety of IV's and I was connected to equipment from the hospital and equipment from the ambulance. The snow storm was brutal but they had me all bundled up in warm blankets to take me out an load me in the ambulance. With that we were off. I could hear the siren from time to time while Paula was monitoring and recording information. There was an ongoing exchange of information in the ambulance including vitals. While we were really moving through the storm, the atmosphere in the ambulance was totally calm at all times. This was a crew who was totally on top of their game and as a patient I felt confident that they were well prepared to deal with any eventuality during transport. We arrived safely in Kingston where I was effectively stabilized during the first two hours. After many tests in the days which followed I underwent a difficult ablation surgery which took about 3 hours on the table.
Today, I am back getting on with my life, thanks to the hero's at Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Services and some really talented, highly skilled, dedicated, medical personnel working within our health care system.
