A Vancouver man is making a remarkable recovery after a life-changing emergency, one that’s also raising serious questions about our health care system.
Andrew Cho, an extreme sports enthusiast, said he hadn’t been feeling well on January 6. That evening, he bailed on dinner with friends and returned to his downtown apartment. He noticed his hands and feet were getting colder by the minute.
He called a friend, who told him to go to the hospital. He wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
“I decided to try to make my way to the door just in case I needed to call 911. And that’s pretty much when I collapsed forward. I lost use of my limbs,” Cho said.
Determined to live, he used his chin to drag his body over to his iPhone. He used his tongue to activate Siri.
“It was probably the biggest relief when that call went through and Siri said, ‘Calling 911,'” he said.
Cho underwent emergency surgery at Vancouver General Hospital and is now undergoing therapy there.
He has regained some mobility in his right side and there is hope that he is going to be able to walk out of the hospital one day.
WATCH: Suddenly paralyzed, Vancouver man uses chin to call 911
Still, it’s the length of time it took for help to arrive that has Cho and his family raising questions. He estimates firefighters arrived within about 10 minutes, but he says it took paramedics much longer.
“What I was told was that due to the nature of my call, if there was a higher priority call, they would have to tend to that call first,” Cho said. “I never thought in my life that an ambulance would take that long.”
Case under investigation
The Cho family has written a letter to BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS), who say Cho’s case is under investigation. They’re also looking into why Cho was just “scooped up” as opposed to being fitted with a neck brace prior to paramedics transporting him to hospital.
Joe Acker, BCEHS director of patient care delivery, says when a call comes in, it’s prioritized based on a ranking system.
“A stable paralysis or someone that doesn’t have chest pain or shortness of breath is actually not a high-priority call,” Acker said.
On Jan. 6, Acker said they were experiencing “system pressures,” which might explain the delayed response time.
“We will look into how that call was evaluated to make sure that was done appropriately and we’ll obviously give that information to Andrew and his family,” Acker said.
– With files from Catherine Urquhart