Latest news with #MedicalPriorityDispatch
Global News
13-05-2025
- Health
- Global News
911 call on night UVic student overdosed was ‘the most complex,' doctor testifies
The coroner's inquest into the drug death of a University of Victoria student has gone to the jury after hearing more testimony about a controversial 911 call. Sidney McIntyre-Starko was 18 years old when she died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in her dorm room in January 2024. She and her friends had snorted a substance they'd found at the bottom of a box of coolers. The inquest into her death was called after her parents went public with concerns over the response of UVic campus security and the length of time it took to give her naloxone and CPR. 2:32 Emergency dispatch system under scrutiny at coroner's inquest into death of UVic student One of the key questions in this inquest was if unnecessary delays with the call taker and the software used by B.C. Emergency Health Services contributed to McIntyre Starko's death. Story continues below advertisement The founder of the software, Medical Priority Dispatch, Dr. Jeff Clawson, says in his 40 years of doing this work. this 911 call is among the most complex he has ever encountered. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The lawyers representing the McIntyre-Starko family have been challenging that narrative, pointing to critical parts of the 911 call that could have led the call taker down a different path, leading to much earlier use of CPR. When McIntyre-Starko's friend first called 911 she said her friends were having seizures, the computer system immediately flagged two people with seizures as an 'unusual chief complaint.' However, the inquest heard that the 911 call taker didn't deviate from her mandatory questions about the seizures. 911: 'OK, so what's going on? What do you see?' Story continues below advertisement Student 2: 'Um, they're both just lying on their sides right now. Just on the ground and –' 911: 'Are they pregnant or have they been pregnant in the past four weeks?' Student 2: 'No, no, no they haven't.' 911: 'Are they diabetic?' Student 2: 'Not that I'm aware of, no.' 911: 'Are they an epileptic?' Student 2: 'No.' Testimony in the inquest has now concluded and the jury has begun its deliberations.
Global News
07-05-2025
- Health
- Global News
U.S. doctor says at inquest that B.C.'s 911 call-taking algorithm is ‘flawed'
The inquest into the death of Sidney McIntyre-Starko continued on Wednesday, when a doctor from the U.S. took the stand. Dr. Michael Kurz is a physician who has written academic papers on best practices around emergency medical dispatch in the United States. He testified that in order to save lives, dispatchers need to be quicker with key questions, which Sidney McIntyre-Starko's family says could have saved her life. McIntyre-Starko died of fentanyl poisoning in January 2024 after she and a friend collapsed in a university dorm room after consuming drugs found in a box of coolers a friend found on a street corner. She was attending the University of Victoria at the time and it was her first year away from home. On Jan. 23 2024, the 18-year-old and two friends took what they thought was cocaine. However, according to toxicology the substance in the vial was fentanyl. Story continues below advertisement When the two girls passed out, the third teen called 911. It took the 911 call taker more than three minutes to establish the young women were in a dormitory on the UVIC campus, but critically it takes another minute to ask key questions. '911: Are they awake? Student 2: No 911: Are they breathing? Student 2: Um…I'm not 100 per cent sure. I think so. Are they breathing? Yes, they are.' Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Kurz said on the stand on Wednesday that those questions should come from 911 call takers immediately after securing a location. 'If they need emergency medical care, it's very simple,' he said. 'You secure an address, and then you ask two questions. One, is the patient conscious? Yes, no. Two, is the patient breathing normally? Yes, no. 'If the answer to either of those questions is no, you're at the point where you have enough information to dispatch the appropriate response.' Kurz said that response is dispatching resources and beginning CPR on the patient. 2:34 Coroner's inquest into UVic student's death hears testimony from 911 operator Instead, the inquest has heard that BC Emergency Health Services uses technology provided by a private company called Medical Priority Dispatch, which is software that uses a much a more complicated algorithm to assess patients. Story continues below advertisement The 911 call taker was told the students were having seizures, which meant they spent nearly eight minutes trying to get people on scene to perform a breathing diagnostic prescribed by the dispatch system. Finally it was discovered the students had overdosed and Narcan was administered. CPR finally started 15 minutes into the 911 call as McIntyre-Starko's condition worsened. 1:22 Security guard takes stand at coroner's inquest into death of UVic student Kurz said the algorithm is flawed. 'This is a perfect example of what happens when we don't over-triage,' he said. 'When the system is built to be as precise as possible, it will be, you know, maximally efficient. That's not the goal of emergency medical response. The goal of emergency medical response is to eliminate the public harm and save lives.' Story continues below advertisement Medical priority dispatch manages 911 call procedures in every Canadian province and much of the rest of the world. Changes have already been made in the system in the wake of McIntyre-Starko's death.
