Woman who died after waiting seven hours in ER told husband she thought she was dying

Nova Scotia province’s healthcare system is in ‘dire situation’, says official

A woman in Canada has died after waiting for almost seven hours to receive emergency care at a hospital on New Year’s Eve in what has been described as a “senseless death”.

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

Her husband, Gunter Holthoff, told CBS news, that she had to be carried on his back to reach the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre in Nova Scotia’s Amherst town at 11am local time before they spent hours in the waiting room.

“She was obviously in pain,” he said on Sunday, recalling his wife’s excruciating pain and their ordeal. “I was rolling her in the wheelchair and she could hardly sit up.”

Ms Holthoff’s pain worsened as the two waited for more than six hours in the emergency department’s waiting room. They were only able to see a doctor after 6pm in the evening, he said.

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

Ms Holthoff then fell on the bathroom floor as she was not able to stand on her own and required the assistance of two other people to get back onto her wheelchair.

Her condition deteriorated to the point where she was unable to sit in the wheelchair and ended up lying on the floor, he said.

“I told the nurses and the lady at the desk there a couple of times, ‘It is getting worse,’ and nothing happened,” Mr Holthoff said. “So the security guards, in time, they brought a couple blankets out and they brought us a cup of water and I used it to put some ice on her lips.”

As they continued to wait, Ms Holthoff told her husband that she felt she was dying.

“I think that she actually started saying that she thought she was dying in the waiting room outside,” Gunter continued. “She said, ‘I think I’m dying. Don’t let me die here’”.

His wife was then taken to a room with a bed, but no medical equipment. A nurse checked her blood pressure and found it to be alarmingly low.

She then received more urgent care and a doctor came to see her. An X-ray was prepped, but she was unable to breathe.

“The next thing is [her] eyes rolled back in her head and her chest started rising. Something started beeping,” he said. “The next thing you hear is over the PA, ‘code blue, code blue in X-ray.’”

“Even if she would have survived at that point... she had too long a time without sufficient blood flow to the brain and vital organs. It would have been not a life worth living,” he said.

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

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

Alexandra Rose, the provincial co-ordinator for the Nova Scotia Health Coalition, said the situation is scary and the province’s healthcare system is in a “dire situation”.

“It’s so scary. And we have to wonder, when is the breaking point? Is this the breaking point now that somebody has passed away? It was a senseless death,” she said.