CBC – A junior hockey player with a suspected head injury waited almost an hour on the ice at a Prince George, B.C., arena before an ambulance responded to a 911 call, according to the general manager of the Prince George Spruce Kings.
“He’s lying on the cold ice, and at that point, you know, the [hockey staff] were starting to get a little bit concerned about hypothermia as well as what could be another injury,” Mike Hawes told CBC News.
Hawes said paramedics finally arrived at the Kopar Memorial Arena about 50 minutes later after the game’s announcer drove to the University Hospital of Northern B.C. and asked paramedics at the ambulance emergency bay for help.
The only reason an ambulance came was a because the announcer drove to the hospital to ask for help? What?! That is insane. A player sitting on the ice with a potential concussion (and possibly more injuries) is supposed to just lay on the ice with no medical treatment for nearly an hour? Why is this not a bigger story?
The game was on Saturday night, between the BCHL Vernon Vipers and the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Shortly before the end of the third period, Will Blackburn, fell into the boards and appeared to hit his head. Trainers were called in and the officials called 911. They called multiple times and were even put on hold during this whole fiasco. Therefore the announcer, after some time, decided it was necessary to physically drive to the hospital and get the attention of workers to ultimately get an ambulance to show up at the rink to help this 19 year old player.
Luckily, throughout all of this, the player was cleared and released from the hospital. So all is looking good for him. This really shouldn’t be an issue. Every game should have either ambulance on site or a direct line to first responders. How many times have we seen horrific accidents at rink and thanks to paramedics, they didn’t get too bad. Be better Canada, that’s it.
