Paramedics forced to play the undertaker-dead

Gilles Turmel

Tuesday, 27 march, 2018 18:32

UPDATE
Tuesday, 27 march, 2018 18:34

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RIMOUSKI | An ambulance was requisitioned on Friday to transport a corpse to Rimouski. The Brotherhood of paramedics Rimouski-Mont-Joli denounces this practice, which is contrary to the law.

In fact, these are the cars owned by the funeral homes who have the responsibility to carry corpses. However, on Friday afternoon, paramedics were called to go to the CHSLD Rimouski for a patient requiring transport to the Hospital in Rimouski. On-site, they learned that the patient in question was in fact the corpse of a person who has been dead for several hours.

In spite of everything, they effected the transfer of the body between the two institutions. Subsequently, they have had to proceed with the decontamination of their vehicle and their equipment, for obvious reasons of safety.

In the end, their vehicle was not available for true emergencies for an hour.

“Our paramedics were called to the CHSLD for a cardio-respiratory arrest with a dnr order. On their arrival, the paradémics were directed to the morgue and they are told that a transport had been organized. The person was in a shroud with the label to the toe. The transfer request was for the morgue of the Hospital in Rimouski for post-mortem examinations,” said Jeremiah Landry, president of the Brotherhood of paramedics Rimouski-Mont-Joli.

The health Centre of the Bas-St-Laurent maintains that it has responded to a request that was addressed to him by the coroner’s Office. But what is clear is that the paramedics will refuse now to carry corpses.

“There is an order that has been given. Is it that it is the coroner who gave it, is this the CISSS? We do not know. But this is clearly not the task of the paramedics to transport people who have been dead for several hours. There will be no transportation from morgue to morgue,” concluded Jérémie Landry.