{"id":97143,"date":"2025-09-17T08:38:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=97143"},"modified":"2025-09-17T08:38:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:38:58","slug":"northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ontario\u2019s EMS crisis, where even the ambulance is dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Jon Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ricochet Roy Cutfeet\u2019s pager flickered an address into the dark. It was the middle of the night, in the middle of the winter in his fly-in hometown of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, and he was the only volunteer on duty to drive the vehicle they called an \u201cambulance.\u201d He arrived on the scene to find a woman without a pulse. \u201cI was caught in a puzzle,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI had to ask the daughter to drive so I could do CPR on her mom in the back, who died on the way to the clinic. Since then, nobody ever reached out to me to see if I needed debriefing. These are issues that happen. They just throw you on a bus with no&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F09%2F17%2Fnorthern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jon Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ricochet Roy Cutfeet\u2019s pager flickered an address into the dark. It was the middle of the night, in the middle of the winter in his fly-in hometown of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, and he was the only volunteer on duty to drive the vehicle they called an \u201cambulance.\u201d He arrived on the scene to find a woman without a pulse. \u201cI was caught in a puzzle,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI had to ask the daughter to drive so I could do CPR on her mom in the back, who died on the way to the clinic. Since then, nobody ever reached out to me to see if I needed debriefing. These are issues that happen. They just throw you on a bus with no... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F09%2F17%2Fnorthern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Northern Ontario\u2019s EMS crisis, where even the ambulance is dangerous - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Northern Ontario\u2019s EMS crisis, where even the ambulance is dangerous - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jon Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ricochet Roy Cutfeet\u2019s pager flickered an address into the dark. It was the middle of the night, in the middle of the winter in his fly-in hometown of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, and he was the only volunteer on duty to drive the vehicle they called an \u201cambulance.\u201d He arrived on the scene to find a woman without a pulse. \u201cI was caught in a puzzle,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI had to ask the daughter to drive so I could do CPR on her mom in the back, who died on the way to the clinic. Since then, nobody ever reached out to me to see if I needed debriefing. These are issues that happen. They just throw you on a bus with no\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-17T12:38:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/17\\\/northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/17\\\/northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Northern Ontario\u2019s EMS crisis, where even the ambulance is dangerous\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-17T12:38:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/17\\\/northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1983,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/17\\\/northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/17\\\/northern-ontarios-ems-crisis-where-even-the-ambulance-is-dangerous\\\/\",\"name\":\"Northern Ontario\u2019s EMS crisis, where even the ambulance is dangerous - 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