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Nicola said the way AHS has outlined events resulting in a 30-minute ambulance response unfairly places some of the blame on her
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Jun 08, 2022 2hours ago 5 minute read 16 Comments Betty Ann (Rusty) Williams, 86, died after she was attacked by three dogs in a northwest Calgary alley on Sunday. Photo by GoFundMe Article content
The woman who called 911 after her elderly neighbor was mauled by three dogs on Sunday says the explanation given by health officials for a delayed ambulance response has left her with a sense of guilt.
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Police say the 86-year-old woman, Betty Ann Williams more commonly known as Rusty was killed after her neighbors dogs escaped their backyard and attacked her as she tended to her garden at her Capitol Hill home around 2 pm
The three dogs believed to be a North American pit bull terrier mix, a North American Staffordshire mix and an American pit bull have since been seized by the city.
Alberta Health Services probed the delayed response. AHS said the 911 call center initially sent the call to police alone, based on information provided by the caller. Information provided to EMS by police indicated the situation was not urgent.
Any dispatcher is only able to work with the information that they have before them When we initially got the call from Calgary Police Service, it was classified as what we call a bravo call, which is emergency non-life-threatening, Albertas chief paramedic, Darren Sandbeck, said during an unrelated news conference Wednesday.
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When Calgary police arrived, they immediately notified their dispatcher who immediately notified our dispatcher that this was a serious, life-threatening situation, at which time we updated our response to a life-threatening response and an ambulance was immediately dispatched to that event and arrived nine minutes after that dispatch.
Nicola, the woman who called 911, and her husband, Lane, whose last names Postmedia has agreed not to publish, said the way AHS has outlined the events unfairly places some of the blame on her.
After I read that, let me tell you, I was not in a good frame. I felt it was my fault, she said, adding shes confident she asked for paramedics to respond and her husband was yelling EMS as she was on the call with 911.
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From what they wrote, you would read, Oh, I didnt say it was urgent enough.’
Back alley in the 1500 block of 21st Avenue NW where the attack occurred. Photo by Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia
Nicola said she called 911 at 2:01 pm and the ambulance arrived around 2:35 pm She said her initial interaction with 911 ended with the operator telling her to call back if things change. City bylaw officers arrived on scene minutes later and attempted to get an ambulance to respond.
He tried on his radio to get a hold of the EMS to say, like, Whats going on? she said.
After 15 minutes of trying and failing to contact EMS, Nicola said the bylaw officer called the fire department. Firefighters and police arrived around the same time and Nicola said it was the fire captain who called for paramedics shortly after showing up.
Sandbeck said AHS is aware of reports of a bylaw officer trying to get an ambulance on scene but said we havent been able to gather the facts around that particular portion of this event yet, but we continue to look into this.
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Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the previous city council opposed AHSs move to take the ambulance dispatch system out of the citys hands and expressed concerns about the change, saying the citys service was recognized for world-class standards. AHS completed the consolidation of dispatch services in January.
Braid: Patients call 911 for help from hospital. The deep crisis in EMS 911 call for fatal dog attack initially treated as non-life-threatening, says AHS
Were seeing all kinds of things happening with wait times right now, said Gondek.
Our Calgary Fire Department partners will tell you that theyre generally first on scene and they have to manage situations that they should not be managing on their own. EMS needs a good look at what is happening. We need to do better for Calgarians.
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As far as any kind of ban on specific breeds of dogs, namely pit bulls, Gondek said the best thing for Calgarians to do is to wait until we have all the facts before calling for any legislative action.
Flowers are displayed at the scene of a fatal dog attack in northwest Calgary last Sunday. Photo by Jim Wells /Postmedia
I can also tell you that when Calgarians were asked about bullies bully breed-specific legislation is how its been phrased in the past Calgarians did not have an appetite to do something like that. We spent a couple of years looking at the responsible pet ownership bylaw, she said.
So these are early days (in) figuring out what happened in this situation. . . so lets wait and see what the facts tell us.
Nicola and Lane are anxiously awaiting more information about what happened to their neighbour. They say they wont let this go until they get answers.
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Theres a number of things going on here, said Lane. Its easy to lose sight of the important things, which are that Rusty lost his life and weve got an issue with response times.
Regardless of how it plays out, Nicola said shes glad she and her husband were there for Williams in her final moments.
The only good thing that came out of this was we were there with Rusty at the end, she said.
She had somebody that actually cared for her with her. Had we not been around here, there would have been nobody here. She would have been alone.
The Health Sciences Association of Alberta said it would not comment further on the matter on Wednesday, saying its AHS and Alberta Health who need to clarify what happened. We dont have access to the chain of events, they do.
Postmedia has requested the transcript or audio of the 911 call from the City of Calgary but has not yet received a response.
Police say they are looking through the 911 call log from Sunday to determine who was dispatched when and the order of events. They said they hope to share something in the coming days.
The criminal investigation into the matter continues. The dog owner could face charges, depending on the outcome of the investigation, and the dogs could be euthanized.
With files from Brodie Thomas and Stephanie Babych
Twitter:@michaelrdrguez
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