Charly Haynes - Testimonial 

Charly Haynes
Asthma attack
Interfacility Transfer from Collingwood General Hospital to Rouge Valley Health System

On Friday, February 19th my wife, daughter (Charly), father-in-law and myself departed for Blue Mountain, for what was going to a fun 3 days of skiing and family time. On Saturday, Feb. 20th Charly, who is 20 months, woke up around 5:30am with a horrible wheeze. We gave her a Ventalin puffer, expecting her to clear up like she normally does. At 7:30am when the wheeze was worse we decided to take her to Collingwood General and Marine Hospital. My wife stayed behind and skied with her father – as we have been through this a couple of times with Charly – she goes into ER, gets a 15 minute dose of Ventalin, some oxygen and she’s good to go.

However, despite the efforts of the wonderful staff at Collingwood General, Charly’s breathing was still labouring and the wheeze had intensified. My wife rushed up to the hospital to join us. Collingwood does not accept paediatrics as patients and it was looking like we were going to be shipped off to Orillia, where the nearest Paediatrician was located. Being from Ajax, this wasn’t going to be the most convenient location for us, especially if Charly was going to be in the hospital for a few days – not to mention her entire medical history was with the Paediatrician at Ajax/Pickering hospital. But who were we to say anything; we just wanted Charly to get the appropriate care.

The staff at Collingwood was not comfortable with Charly riding in an ambulance for 2.5 hours back to Ajax and with the ER was becoming exceptionally busy (injured skiers/snowboarders were filling the ER) the doctor was unable to exhaust the same amount of resources on Charly he had been able to earlier in the day. So the doctor requested for Ornge to fly Charly and my wife back to Ajax/Pickering. Our emotions were being pushed to their limits. We were both very frightened for our daughter and sad our vacation was over before it started – however the thought of being able to pack up our belongings and head back home to familiar territory was a big relief.

The Ornge paramedics that arrived at the Collingwood Hospital were fantastic. They were professional, thorough, compassionate, and reassuring. Immediately I knew things were starting to go our way. I knew my daughter and wife were in good hands, and I was able to relax and safely make the 2.5 hour drive back to Ajax.

Within 35 minutes of departing Collingwood, my daughter and wife were being attended to by the Paediatrician and Respiratory Therapist at Ajax/Pickering – resources not available in Collingwood, and with some different treatment, Charly responded, and after nearly 7 hours of laboured breathing she was returning to normal.

We were discharged from Ajax/Pickering on Sunday, February 21st at approx. noon, less than 18 hours after Charly boarded Ornge. Charly has been diagnosed with Asthma and will now remain on a new puffer for the next several months.

Recently we flew with Porter Airlines, and I was watching from the airport terminal as one of your fleet of helicopters took to the sky – much to Charly’s delight, as she loves your “planes”. I also read an article about Ornge inside Porter’s in-flight magazine and read the Toronto Star series about your organization. As a police officer in Toronto I have witnessed the good and the bad with front line responders from various emergency services. The service our family received from your team was as good as it gets.

I’m sure your team has been on much more intense, stressful and urgent calls for service – however, they treated Charly as if she was the most important little girl in the world (which I admire a great deal knowing it’s not always the easiest thing to do in emergency services). The Ornge team delivered big time for our family and for that we say “Thank-you”.

Wishing you all safe travels, and if you ever look down while traveling above Ajax and see a little girl waving, it’ll be Charly waving at the “plane”.

Sincerely,
Andrew, Katie and Charly