Allison Holthoff: A Nova Scotia woman dies after waiting in the emergency room

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A woman in Canada died after waiting nearly seven hours to receive emergency care in a hospital on New Year’s Eve in what was described as a “meaningless death”.

Allison Holthoff, 37, of Nova Scotia, was rushed to the emergency room on the morning of December 31 after her condition worsened from what was initially thought to be an upset stomach.

Her husband, Gunther Holthoff, told CBS News she had to be carried on his back to get to the Cumberland Regional Health Care Center in Amherst, Nova Scotia, at 11 a.m. local time before they spent hours in the waiting room.

“She was obviously in pain,” he said Sunday, remembering his wife’s agonizing pain and distress. “I was wheeling her around in a wheelchair and she could barely sit.”

Ms. Holthoff’s pain worsened as the two waited more than six hours in the emergency department waiting room. He said they were not able to see a doctor until after 6 p.m.

By then, the doctor said, it was already too late. She underwent an initial examination and the nurse asked for her urine sample.

Mrs. Holthoff then fell to the bathroom floor because she was unable to stand on her own and required the help of two other people to get back into her wheelchair.

He said her condition deteriorated to the point where she was unable to sit in a wheelchair and ended up lying on the floor.

“I told the nurses and the lady on the desk there several times, ‘It’s getting worse, nothing happened,’” Mr. Holthoff said. “So, just in time, the security guards brought two blankets outside and brought us a glass of water and she used it to put some ice on her lips.”

While they continued to wait, Mrs. Holthoff told her husband that she felt she was dying.

“I think she was already starting to say that she thought she was dying in the waiting room outside,” Gunther continued. She said, “I think I’m dying.” Don’t let me die here.”

Then his wife was taken to a room with a bed, but without medical equipment. A nurse checked her blood pressure and found it to be alarmingly low.

Then she received urgent care and a doctor came to see her. X-rays were prepared, but she was unable to breathe.

Next thing is [her] Her eyes rolled back in her head and her chest began to rise. Something started beeping,” he said. “The next thing you hear is above PA, code blue, code blue in X-ray.”

“Even if she would have survived at that point…she had gone a very long time without adequate blood flow to the brain and vital organs. It wasn’t a life worth living,” he said.

Mr Holthoff said the system was “obviously broken” and “we need to change” as “I don’t want anyone else to go through this”.

Elizabeth Smith-McCrossen, a local MLA, wrote a letter to the provincial health minister to demand an “urgent investigation” into the case.

The situation is frightening and the health care system in the province is in “terrible shape,” said Alexandra Rose, regional coordinator for the Nova Scotia Health Alliance.

“It’s very scary. And we have to wonder when was the breaking point? Is that the breaking point now that someone’s dead? It was a senseless death,” she said.

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