A variety of hospital and EMS services relied on to treat victims of stabbing in Oshawa
Dec 02, 2008 - 05:10 PM
By Parvaneh Pessian
OSHAWA -- Fervent efforts from hospital staff and emergency services went into caring for the Kelly family, victims of a brutal stabbing in south Oshawa last weekend.
The family -- including Leslie, husband Rick and their young children Nathan and Riley -- were rushed to Lakeridge Health Oshawa after a man attacked them at their Glen Street home on Saturday evening.
Without discussing specifics of the incident, Chris Kooy, Lakeridge Health Oshawa's vice-president of clinical programs, said that a wide variety of hospital resources were utilized to provide the highest quality of care.
"We had a large number of patients that were seriously ill so we did initiate a response where many people across the hospital came down and supported our emergency department," Ms. Kooy said.
"The staff in the emergency department were (responsible) for organizing the care that was provided and then they extended a call out to the rest of the hospital requesting help as needed to support them in their efforts."
This included assistance from various physicians, respiratory therapists, nurses, as well as switchboard and security personnel.
Ms. Kelly was later pronounced dead while her husband remains at the hospital in guarded care, according to a spokesperson who chose to remain anonymous.
The couple's boys, ages 3 and 5, were sent to the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.
Durham Regional Health Department spokeswoman Glendene Collins said immediate response from various sources is critical in any crisis, especially when there are multiple patients involved.
"Our paramedics are trained to deal with any level of emergency situation so they would be prepared to deal with anything that is required at a scene they are responding to," she said.
"EMS is a seamless operation across the province so if further assistance is required, we can call upon other jurisdictions."
To respect the privacy of the family, officials could not speak directly about the case but said patients of Lakeridge Health Oshawa are taken to the city's airport if there is a need to transport them to other healthcare facilities.
"If we had to transfer a patient that was acutely ill to another centre, the ambulance service would provide that transportation either by land or by air," Ms. Collins said, adding that Lakeridge Health Oshawa does not have a helipad on site.
As per standard procedure, hospital staff first contact CritiCall, an emergency referral service for physicians across Ontario, Lakeridge Health spokesman Arnel Schiratti. They are then directed to the best possible receiving hospital and the Provincial Transfer Authorization Centre determines what method of transportation is taken.
"We give them an assessment as to how urgent the needs are and then they determine what assets they have and what assets they should use," he said, adding that the decision is made based on the severity of each case and need for immediate treatment.
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