What happens when you live in a rural area and need to get to a hospital because of a life threatening emergency?

Carrie Thrower Moore, a fifty year old lifetime resident of Schreiber, just happens to work a few miles away at the McCausland Hospital in Terrace Bay, Ontario. On September 3, 2020 she suddenly fell to the floor from her chair. She was unable to move and the left side of her body went numb. Unable to reach her cell phone she was lucky that her husband arrived home within a few minutes and called 911. She realized what was happening to her and informed the Emergency Medical Services staff upon their arrival.

Knowing the small hospital in Terrace Bay might not be prepared for such an emergency the paramedics quickly diverted to the Thunder Bay Regional hospital and into the emergency stroke department, a decision that ultimately saved her life.

Quick EMS response time is crucial in saving lives, but when you live 200 km’s away from the city it can take hours just to get to the hospital. On top of that there is only one ambulance in each town and each town can be up to 100 kilometres apart. That distance can be a real problem. In any emergency, such as a road accident, of which there are many on Highway 17, there may be no ambulance available to resident in need of an emergency service.

Imagine the fear that this can impose on residents and now try and understand the concern when a recent story broke that there was a very real possibility of cuts to the EMS. The decision being made by the city of Thunder Bay to try and save costs by consolidating emergency services in small towns  along the north shore threatens the health and safety of residents in the affected areas. To add insult to injury there had been no real consultation with any of the towns being affected. There would be no service cuts in the city however and ironically they may require an upgrade to the existing services as Thunder Bay is struggling with service delivery to its own residents.

There is a perception that if people choose to live in remote areas then they must accept the fact that there may not be certain services available. As Carrie mentioned in an interview with Kim Krause from the Schreiber Media Centre, some things just get swept under the carpet and forgotten but she decided that she was no longer prepared to have the concerns of residents in smaller communities ignored. She had been approached by a councillor to write a letter telling her story and her concerns after she posted a comment on Facebook about her experience. She was then contacted by Mayor Dave Hamilton and given more information that would allow her to compose a well informed letter.

In a sad twist of fate Mayor Hamilton would be killed in a road accident on the way back from a meeting in Marathon where the issue of EMS cuts was being discussed. She was moved to finish up the letter after his death and would eventually publish that letter on Facebook to an amazing response. She has become the voice for not only the residents of the area, encouraging everyone to get involved and write letters to their local MP, MPP, and councillors, asking for support in preventing the cuts. She also acknowledges the tremendous effort of the pandemics who risk their own lives and struggle with mental health issues due to the stresses of the job they perform saving the lives of others,