The Quebec coroner’s office has blasted the Nunavik Health Board for a lack of “good sense” and “compassion” after taking 18 hours to rescue a badly burned Inuk Elder. The woman died from burns that covered almost all of her body.
The coroner’s report, dated April 25, comes at a time of growing questions about whether the Nunavik Health Board provides adequate services in the Inuit communities.
Sarah Ningiuruvik Paulusi, 79, was at her cabin about 25 kilometres outside Kangiqsujuaq with some other Elders and her son on Jun 1, 1999.
She had poor vision and accidentally filled a camp stove with gasoline instead of kerosene. As she attempted to light the stove at around 6 p.m., it exploded.
Her son, outside chopping wood when the blast occurred, looked up to see his mother’s face on fire through the window of the cabin. Her clothes were all burning and only her feet weren’t on fire.
He put out the flames with three other women, then jumped on a snowmobile and headed to town to get help. The son arrived at 9:30 p.m., but the two nurses said they couldn’t leave the community to help because of internal regulations.
Ningiuruvik couldn’t be medevac’ed out either because all available pilots said they’d already flown their legally allotted hours for that day.
According to federal law, pilots are limited to only a 14-hour daily shift.
Finally, a convoy of local Canadian Rangers and a police officer took off to help the Elder at 11 p.m., arriving a little after midnight.
The officer applied first aid based on instructions from the community’s health clinic staff. He also contacted the village by radio and informed the clinic that Ningiuruvik was seriously burned and needed to be flown to Kuujjuak as soon as she was brought into the community.
The group left the camp at 12:45 a.m. and, travelling at reduced speed, arrived in Kangiqsujuaq at 3 a.m., seven hours after the explosion. On her arrival, no plane had been called because of another regulation that requires nurses to visually check patients before ordering a medevac.
It wasn’t until 9:30 a.m. that Ningiuruvik was taken to the airport. She arrived in Kuujjuak at noon, where she finally got hospital treatment, 18 hours after the accident. At 7 p.m., the hospital again put her on a plane, this time to take her to a Quebec City hospital burn unit.
When she arrived at 11:35 p.m., on June 2, it was nearly 30 hours since the explosion. Ningiuruvik passed away there at 3:10 the morning of June 3.
“The speed of the emergency response from the moment she arrived in Kuujjuak seems without reproach, but we can’t say the same about the time lapse between the explosion at Sarah Paulusi’s cabin and her transport to the hospital in Kuujjuak,” wrote the coroner. Dr. Pierre Samson.
“The lack of internal planning in such a situation needs to be the subject of an urgent and thorough review by public authorities, so well-organized services are available in any emergency or disaster that may arise.”
