A Toronto heart surgeon says he was speeding to save a life, but that explanation wasn't good enough for a police officer who issued him a ticket.

Dr. Michael Kutryk was handed a $300 ticket for allegedly going 35 kilometres an hour over the posted speed limit on Saturday. He was travelling along Moore Avenue towards St. Michael's Hospital in downtown Toronto when he came across the speed trap.

He told police he was rushing to an emergency call to operate on a man who had just suffered a heart attack and needed urgent surgery.

Because he was pulled over, he was delayed by 10 minutes.

The heart attack victim, 47-year-old Jeffrey Halstrom, survived. But his partner Michael Oscars said he's furious about how the police handled the situation.

"The emergency department called and said, 'You might like to come back. Your partner has just taken a very serious turn for the worse,'" he said.

"He was pleading with the officer to let him go because every minute counts...and the officer completely ignored his claim, from what he told me," Oscars told CTV Toronto.

Oscars said he has written a letter of concern to Police Chief Bill Blair.

The Toronto Police Service is defending the officer's actions, saying it was a matter of public safety.

"At any given time there are hundreds of doctors in this city who are on call, they're all dealing with stressful situations and they all manage to do their jobs while obeying the speed limit," said Mark Pugash, a police spokesperson, adding the real question is one of public safety.

 "Hospitals are very sophisticated, they have tiered responses where they stabilize patients waiting for doctors to arrive. This happens every day of the week."

Oscars said perhaps if Kutryk hadn't been delayed, his partner would have suffered less heart damage.

Kutryk has not spoken to reporters about the situation but instead released a statement through St. Michael's Hospital.

"Dr. Kutryk truly considers this a private matter between himself and the police and has chosen not to discuss this any further," the hospital's statement says. "He regrets speeding to hospital on Saturday. He also regrets voicing his frustration about being stopped by police with the patient's family, adding stress to an already stressful situation."

With a report from CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin