Dear Editor,
On Saturday, Aug. 18th at approximately 4 p.m., my husband, Brent Boychuk, was experiencing the early stages of a heart attack. He asked my daughter Brianne to take him to the clinic in the Pierview area. They arrived at the family medical centre where Brent himself, with Brianne, walked up to the doors to seek medical help and the doors were locked.
Brent walked back to the truck and asked Brianne to take him to Dr. Fugler’s office where he and Brianne again walked up to the door to find it locked also. There Brent fell unconscious.
I desperately tried to call Brianne several times on the phone to find out if my husband was okay and what had happened. Little did I know that at this time she was administering CPR trying to save her daddy’s life.
I called the hospital to get the doctor’s number that was on call here in Sylvan, but the nurse at hospital took my number and said the doctor would call me back. That was on the 18th of August. Today as I write this is the 27th of August and I still have not heard from the doctor on call that day.
I finally got hold of Brianne to find out that my beloved Brent had suffering a heart attack and that the paramedics were trying to revive him.
I drove like a mad woman to talk to my baby to help bring him back. All the words and crying and pleading, the begging and kisses and love I gave him couldn’t save him. What he needed was immediate medical attention.
My husband, Brent Boychuk, was pronounced dead that afternoon after finally arriving at Red Deer Regional Hospital.
Sylvan Lake has a population of well over 13,000 permanent residents and no emergency care facility, trauma centre, or hospital! Instead, what we had on that day of desperation were locked clinics, doctors on holidays and a doctor on call that didn’t call at all.
I have no doubt in my mind my husband, Brent Boychuk, would have had a great chance of survival and still be with us today if an emergency clinic was open. He was coherent and walking until he collapsed at the last clinic.
He left behind a wife, four children, and his mother who love him dearly and will forever, as well as many family and friends that will miss him.
All this could have been avoided if there was somewhere in Sylvan Lake for my husband to get help. Even just an ambulance (which I might add Sylvan Lake does not have according to information given to me by the town). Our ambulance is a shared ambulance!
We can pay $2 million plus for fancy bathrooms at the beach but can’t find the funds for emergency care, help me with those funds please I am pleading with you.
I am begging everyone to help me get this Emergency Care Facility up and running as quickly as we can. Please email me and I will share my idea with you. I will make it happen through hell or high water, I just need everyone’s support.
Let’s not let this happen to anyone else. How many deaths does it take this town before action is taken?
Annie Boychuk,
babbb@telus.net,
Sylvan Lake