Ambulance carrying heart-attack patient delayed at U.S. border [View All]

[GliderGuider]

Source: CBC

Ambulance carrying heart-attack patient delayed at U.S. border
Incident was 10th border delay in 2 years involving patients from Windsor to Detroit
Monday, November 19, 2007
CBC News


Federal and provincial officials are calling for a review of border procedures after an ambulance rushing an Ontario heart attack patient to a U.S. hospital was held up at the border.

'I don't think it was right, and I'm really angry that someone would even think to pull in an ambulance where someone is dying in the back.'
—Kat Lauzon, the patient's girlfriendIt was the 10th border delay in two years involving patients being transferred from Windsor to Detroit, according to the CBC's Susan Pedler.

In the latest incident, Rick Laporte was en route from Windsor to a Detroit hospital for an emergency angioplasty on Friday when U.S. customs officials flagged the vehicle for a secondary inspection despite having a police escort and a pre-clearance arrangement.

Pedler reported that, under a deal hammered out in 2005, Windsor is the only border point between Canada and the U.S. that allows patients to be pre-cleared ahead of border crossings with a fax for medical emergencies.

Such an arrangement was made in Laporte's case.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/11/19/windsor-hospital.html

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I knew it was a sad day when we could no longer boast about having the world's longest undefended border.

There was another story last week about firefighters from Canada called to a border town to and stopped.

From the bottom of the article:
"On Nov. 11, six volunteer firefighters from Lacolle, Que., were called to help fight a fire at a historic hotel called Anchorage Inn in Rouses Point, N.Y.

A U.S. border guard held them up for several minutes while he checked their identification.

By the time the firefighters reached the hotel, the building had burned to the ground."

A$$holes. (The dollar signs are intentional and à propos.)