'Abandoned on the side of the road': B.C. man says dispatcher told him to drive to hospital after stroke

Layne French was on his way to pick up his parents from the airport when a coughing fit turned into something much worse.

“About 20 seconds later, it’s like I got kicked right here,” said French, pointing at the back of his head. “But like, inside.”

It happened March 13 during rush hour traffic just as he entered the George Massey Tunnel. French said he was traveling around 80 km/hour when he lost control.

“And then everything starts sloping, sloping, sloping, sloping,” said the Tsawwassen resident. “I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t see. The world was spinning.”

French said he lost use of the right side of his body, but used his left arm and leg to make it through the tunnel and toward the Steveston exit. That’s when he said he pulled to the side and stumbled out of his vehicle and waved his left arm to ask for help.

He says a Good Samaritan called 911. Around 15 minutes later, French also called 911.

“I waited, and I waited, and I waited,” said French.

French said he received a callback around an hour after his original call.

“One of the suggestions I get is, ‘Drive yourself to the hospital,’” recalled French.

He says around two hours after the original 911 call by the bystander, French’s parents eventually cabbed from the airport and drove him to Richmond General Hospital, where he says he waited several more hours to see a doctor and wasn’t provided medication or a diagnosis until nearly 24 hours after suffering the stroke.

“It was 1 a.m. before I saw a doctor,” said French.

The father of two shared his experience Friday with Delta South MLA Ian Paton, from the Opposition BC United party.

“It illustrates that the health-care system is broken,” said Paton. “We will be bringing this as a question in question period to the minister of health. Tell us, what is going on with our health-care system?” said Paton.

B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) told CTV News the call was initially coded yellow, meaning non-urgent, and not requiring a lights-and-sirens response.

“Our records indicate that Emergency Medical Call Takers confirmed with the patient that they had been able to safely drive to a nearby parking lot before calling 911,” read the statement from Bowen Osoko, BCEHS spokesperson. “A secondary triage reassessed the call with the patient by phone. The call was re-assessed as coded green, which indicates the issue may be resolved by treatment onsite.”

Osoko says French’s parents arrived before BCEHS could provide transportation, adding that paramedics were responding to “significant call volumes,” dealing with potentially life-threatening incidents.

French meanwhile strongly disagrees with BCEHS’s assessment of the situation.

“That whole system of, ‘We’ve got you when you’re in dire need’ – they didn’t. Nobody came. They left me abandoned on the side of a road to figure out my own way,” said French.

French was diagnosed with an arterial dissection and is in the process of receiving treatment at the Stroke Prevention Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital.