By the time Erin Spencer was delivered to Victoria General Hospital, she had hemorrhaged more than half her blood. Paramedics on land and sea had battled through stormy weather and rough seas to save her life.
“I have been a nurse for 13 years, and I do not mince words when I say that if I had not received the absolutely fantastic care that I did from every single B.C. Ambulance Service worker I came in contact with, I would have bled to death that day at age 37,” said Spencer, who works at VGH.
“And by saving me, I am able to go on and save hundreds more of our patients,” said Spencer, telling the story of the emergency medical journey that took her from stormy seas off the Gulf Islands to a hospital emergency room in B.C.’s capital city.
Fifteen days after surgery for uterine cancer, Spencer hopped on a ferry at Swartz Bay at 2:05 p.m. headed for Pender Island, where she and husband Trevor are building a home.
Without warning, 20 minutes into the 45-minute voyage, Spencer began hemorrhaging — a rare complication — and got a glimpse into the other side of health care. She immediately ran for the washroom. In no time, it “looked like the scene of a horror movie.” The female body holds an average of about 5.5 litres of blood, and Spencer estimates she lost three litres.
It was Oct. 15, and the third of a series of storms was pounding B.C.’s coast as the remnants of super-typhoon Songda moved into the region.
B.C. Ferries cancelled sailings on major routes about 3 p.m., as docking would be difficult. Spencer’s ferry stopped on Pender Island to wait out the storm.
Spencer and her husband, a community health worker, drove to Port Browning marina, where she could shower and reassess her condition.
The reality was unavoidable: “This was beyond a reasonable amount of blood loss.” She said she had lost more than a litre of blood and her heart was racing. She called 911.
Pender Island B.C. Ambulance paramedics Alex Miniato and Melissa Camelon drove Spencer to see Dr. Gerald Moore, one of three doctors at a clinic on Pender Island. The doctor gave her an intravenous saline solution to slow the bleeding and prevent her from going into shock, she said.
Medical emergencies are frequent on the island, and evacuations by helicopter or boat by B.C. Ambulance Service can be complicated, especially in rough weather, said Moore.
Having heard the 911 call from Pender Island, B.C. Ambulance Service staff in Sidney headed over in a 30-foot boat and were waiting at Thieves Bay dock.
“The storm was so violent by then, I really feel as though the B.C. Ambulance Services attendants on the water risked their own safety to come to Pender to see that I got the emergency care that I needed,” Spencer said.
Spencer conceded with a laugh: “It did occur to me that if we capsized, I’d be strapped to a gurney and sink to the bottom.”
“As a nurse, I know that women do not bleed to death in Canada anymore,” she said, “unless they are stranded and unable to access emergency health care.”
Paramedics Susan Lindsay and Ryan Michno rode with Spencer as Capt. John Manning raced for Swartz Bay.
The team had discussed the dangers of crossing in rough weather to Pender Island but decided they could do so safely.
“We were in the air more often than not, being tossed around like rag dolls, and [Sue] still was able to monitor me and provide the most excellent care,” said Spencer.
Spencer said she was now vomiting, which worsened the hemorrhaging, but her vital signs were stable and she chose to smile and not to panic.
“It was a rough trip, that was the big thing,” Lindsay said. “If it was a beautiful, calm, sunny day it wouldn’t be as serious a situation, but she needed to get from an island in a storm to a hospital.”
“It was definitely on the cusp of becoming a lot more serious than it was … but even though she was quite sick, vomiting, she was able to laugh through that as well,” said Lindsay, a paramedic for nine years.
At one point, the boat’s captain ducked behind the Queen of Cumberland and rode in its wake into Canoe Cove Marina, where the ambulance service docks its boat. It was a 45-minute trip.
On shore, Spencer was handed off to paramedics Nik Southwell and Annie Brothwell, who brought an advanced life-support unit used in cardiac arrests.
With the weather still stormy, the ambulance driver raced to Victoria General, where the trauma-room crew had a few units of blood waiting. It was nice payback for Spencer, who has donated blood 29 times.
“It was beautiful in a way, watching them co-ordinate their services so flawlessly, knowing that time was of the essence and knowing the weather was working against us,” said Spencer.
“I cannot overstate what a great job they did,” she said.
