Ontario woman says she watched her loved one die after being placed on 911 hold

An Ontario woman has been left reeling after she was placed on a 911 hold for several minutes while trying to resuscitate her dying loved one.

“It was the first time I've ever had to call 911 for anything,” Kaitlyn Morris told CTV News Toronto Thursday from her home in Alton, Ont.

The 25-year-old said her aunt, Melinda Craner, lived with her family for her entire life. “She basically raised me,” Morris said. So when Craner was discharged from the hospital following a gastrointestinal surgery in April, Morris said she and her sister took on the roles of caregivers.

However, on April 12, Morris said her aunt experienced a medical emergency.

“My sister and I were in our rooms and all of a sudden we heard a thump,” Morris said, adding that she came running to find her aunt had collapsed.

“My sister was screaming [to] call 911, so I immediately dialed.”

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On that particular evening, Peel police experienced a “significant surge” in 911 calls resulting in delays, a spokesperson for the service told CTV News Toronto.

When Morris called, she was put straight on hold, she said.

In the meantime, the sisters said they were at a loss with how to handle the medical emergency, and decided they needed to take their aunt to the hospital.

Read more: 'He was dying': Toronto family left on hold with 911 while trying to revive choking 1-year-old

“Looking back now, I know I'm not supposed to move someone [in medical distress] from the scene, but I thought I was going to have to take her to the hospital myself,” Morris said.

So, the sisters said they picked up their aunt and began to carry her to the car.

As the sisters worked to secure Craner into the vehicle, Morris said they were connected to a live dispatcher.

“But by that point, we had noticed that she had stopped breathing,” Morris said. According to Peel police, Morris had been on hold for just under four minutes.

“The dispatcher told us to do CPR and we did, but then her eyes started rolling back,” she said “She went blue in the lips, which was absolutely terrifying.”

It was at that moment, Morris said she knew her aunt was gone.

Morris said paramedics soon arrived and that, for a short while, they were able to find a pulse in Craner before losing it. Craner was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, where she was pronounced dead.

"She was so young, only 59," Morris said.

In April, Peel police dispatchers answered over 90,000, the service said in its statement.

“In excess of 33,000, more than one-third, of these calls were deemed to be inappropriate use of 911, [including] misuse and hang-ups,” spokesperson Mandeep Khatra said.

“Hang-ups require the Communicator [to] place a return call and make voice contact to ensure the well-being of the caller,” Khatra said. “This return call prevents our Communicators from attending to other potentially urgent incoming calls.”

Amid ongoing pressures on its communication centre, the service is asking residents to reserve calling 911 for emergency situations.

“If you call 911 by mistake, do not hang-up, stay on the line,” Khatra said.

Craner’s autopsy identified a blood clot in one of her lungs as the cause of death, Morris said. 

Amid their grief, Morris and her family said they’re sharing their experience in the hopes it sparks change and that no other families go through similar traumas.

“For all I had known, they could have gotten her to the hospital in a timely manner and done something,” she said. “Or even if the outcome might still have been terminal, at least I wouldn't have had to watch her die.”

In the weeks since the death of her aunt, Morris said she's still dealing with waves of grief.

“I can’t go into the kitchen where she fell,” she said. “And it’s been two, three weeks and I still can’t sleep at night.”

Last year, 40 per cent of 911 calls placed to Peel police's communications centre were accidental or instances of misuse, the service says.