Ambulance with heart attack victim forced to wait at U.S. Customs

Dave Battagello, CanWest News Service

WINDSOR, Ont. -- An ambulance rushing a heart attack victim to Detroit from aWindsor hospital ill-equipped to perform life-saving surgery was stopped for secondary inspection Monday by United States Customs, despite the fact it carried a man fighting for his life.
Rick Laporte, 49 -who twice had been brought back to life with defibrillators -was being rushed across the border when a U.S. border guard ignored protocol at the Detroit portion of the tunnel and forced the ambulance - with sirens and lights flashing - to pull over.

"If I'm that person in the booth and there is an ambulance coming with a critically injured person, I'm not stopping the damn thing," said Kat Lauzon, Laporte's girlfriend. "I'm irate. I can't figure it out. He could have died and I would have blamed that person for murder."
U.S. Customs officers at the secondary inspection site told the ambulance driver to go inside the office to produce identification, said a frustrated Larry Amlin, of Windsor Essex EMS.
Other guards told the paramedic crew to open the back doors of the ambulance, then asked Laporte to verbally confirm his identify, said Lauzon. She learned afterwards of the incident from Laporte, who survived his life-saving emergency angioplasty surgery at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital.
Laporte, a Canadian Auto Workers Union executive, remained in the cardiac care unit Friday in serious condition.
"This was a life-saving procedure," said Lauzon on Friday, still furious. "What if it was one of their mothers in the ambulance? Would they pull it in? No damn way."
"This was not normal circumstances," she added. "How many drug dealers do you know that get a police escort in the back of an ambulance to go across the border? What is their damn reason for pulling it in?"
Chief Ron Smith of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Detroit could not be reached Friday.
Amlin said the ambulance, according to well-established protocol, received a police escort to the tunnel entrance with several intersections blocked off to help speed the trip. Tunnel traffic was shut down and, after the ambulance arrived at the border crossing, a tunnel company pickup truck with flashing lights, led it to a designated U.S. Customs lane where it was supposed to be waved through.
"We have a system set up. We are to be pre-cleared and no problems," Amlin said.
"We don't run down the street with lights and sirens for nothing. We will go to Homeland Security and ask them why. They have to have some reasonable grounds."
Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj has spoken with the hospital nurse who accompanied Laporte in the vehicle. She said the ambulance driver was inside the customs inspection office for about three minutes before returning.
"We will be meeting with U.S. customs to find out why they pulled them over," said Musyj. "We need to know why in this particular case the ambulance was pulled over to secondary, which is not typical." He would not comment on the danger posed to Laporte's health during the delay.
Last weekend a Quebec fire truck responding to an emergency request for assistance in upstate New York was delayed at the U.S. border despite having lights and sirens activated.

"This is the second time that emergency personal responding to life threatening situations have been stopped on our northern border," said Bennie G. Thompson, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, in Washington on Friday. "Current policies and procedures must be immediately reviewed to ensure that first responders on both sides of the border can continue to save lives."
Thompson plans to send a letter Monday to U.S. Customs and Border Protection asking for full explanation on both the Detroit and New York incidents.
Canada and the U.S. "have a long-standing tradition of helping one another in times of emergency," said Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who also expressed concern in a statement from his office Friday about the Detroit border incident.
Windsor Star
©CanWest News Service 2007


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It just keeps amazing me.

Not to get too far off topic here, but why did they need to come to the U.S.?

Because of the failings of the Canadian health care system.

I little forewarning for you universal health care proponents out there.

The article stated that the hospital there could not treat the patient. It is not clear whether the patient was American or not. This may be pertinent. No doubt there may be limits to the care or not. That is not the issue here. Windsor is not a very large city. The nearest large city is Toronto and I believe it is about 200 miles away. Major medical would be at Detroit.

Still it does not explain why they held up fire trucks and ambulances when in the past they haven't.

I cross the border several times a month. Canada has no problem when you cross. The US is an ordeal to reenter the country you left 24 hours ago.

If I were a border guard, I'd be a little more cautious these days. I know it sounds stupid to think some wacko is going to try and enter illegally using an ambulance with the lights flashing, but I sure would not want to be the guy guy that let one in.

I remember a couple of years ago I was coming back to the U.S. from Canada at the Blaine crossing in WA. state. The car in front of me got surrounded by guards with guns drawn. Screaming and yelling at the driver and passengers to do "this" or do "that". Pretty tense stuff.

Those guards were still huffing and puffing 20 minutes later when I went through. Needless to say I did not complain about the wait.

Your right.

The article said in first line that hospital was to ill-equiped to handle a heart attack. If they can't handle a heart attack then what can they handle?

I don't blame the border patrol for this. There doing their jobs. Their not obligated to give priority to ambulances, that's not what their there to do. The city of windsor, and the Canadian government need to address the reasons why they need to go out side the country for a heart attack case. That's the problem, not the border patrol.

Why are canadian fire trucks crossing the border for an emergency run?

This is a major problem with the guys in Detroit.

They act like everyone is a terrorist....even before 9/11

Talk about power trips...they live for it.

__________________
Even the founding fathers were
labeled traitors in their time. Their
goal was to cast off a
tyrannical Government. -- SU 83
__________________

That might be true, but it doesn't explain to me why canada is using US health services.

Why not? It's up to the patient and the family, if they have the money. Money talks BS walks

I get medical treatment in Mexico when I am close to the border. It's much cheaper. That said....I wouldn't be trying to get into Mexico after suffering a heart attack LOL.

Question that bothers me, Why would you take the chance with a dying patient? Crossing the border, without pre-clearance?

It would seem that they would stabilize the patient first. To insure he survives the ride and wait.

__________________
Even the founding fathers were
labeled traitors in their time. Their
goal was to cast off a
tyrannical Government. -- SU 83
__________________

I understand that. If it was an optional thing, like some kind of surgery or something. Do what you want to do. But apprently this guy had already died twice before reaching the border. It doesn't make since to me.

Windsor is not a major town. The nearest major town is Toronto or Detroit. No smaller town can compete with the needs and providers in a large town whether in Canada or the US.