For those who haven't read the story that Zulutango linked to.
It's from the Winnipeg Gazette Quote:
Enough already, you boob
Posted on Sun - Jul 24, 2011
When I read the story of the highway escapades of David Weber and his wife Genevieve in the local media, I just shrugged and passed them off as yet one whining set of Manitoba morons who got what they deserved after doing a version of Two Lane Blacktop on one of Manitoba’s more dangerous highways.
But now it seems they’re peddling their distorted tale of woe to the media in another province, although a quick read of some of the comments to the story seems to indicate Ontario heartland readers have a fonder appreciation of the fact that speed kills, regardless of circumstances.
Not so in Manitoba where, if memory serves, something like 60% of readers saw nothing wrong with their actions in the original story. When I went looking for that story, instead I came across a more recent article that seems to have dialed back the ‘human interest’ sympathy angle somewhat, although it too fails to portray the events in a more realistic manner.
First, what reasonable woman, who is supposedly a candidate for high risk delivery and C-section scheduled in days, would feel it’s acceptable to go on a day long shopping trip an hour’s drive away, even if Winnipeg has several first-rate maternity care facilities.
Portage La Prairie, where they live, may not be the shopping mecca of Manitoba but it does have a Walmart and several other stores that can supply not only the basic needs of life, but a fair share of the shopper frills as well. It even has its own daily newspaper – if that’s an indication of civilization these days.
At any rate, my understanding of the story is that on their way back they are stopped by the RCMP outside Oakville for speeding – Oakville being about a 15 to 20 minute drive east of Portage.
It’s not overly clear what transpired, but based on my dealings with the local RCMP in the area, if there was any obvious signs of health distress, Genevieve Weber would have been loaded into the RCMP cruiser and rushed to Portage District Hospital. Not that it’s unheard of for the RCMP to escort a vehicle to a medical facility, but it’s generally in cases of severe trauma where it’s unreasonable or impracticable to use the cruiser as a last resort instead of a proper Paramedic unit. In most of these cases the Mounties and EMS personnel have been given advance warning of the situation and meet the vehicle en route to minimize the risk.
It’s not overly clear if the Webers attempt to call emergency services and ask for an escort prior to being stopped by the Mountie, but I suspect not. In fact , in view of the ticket being issued I suspect David Webber was beating his gums about speeding all the way to Brandon - with or without a police escort, and not interested in co-operating with the Officer who was left with no option but to issue a ticket to cover his/her butt, and notify Brandon RCMP that the Webers didn’t grasp the first message.
The officer was in a rather awkward position because their dispatcher is notified of every traffic stop and provided with the vehicle licence number over the radio. Assistance or an escort to the nearest medical facility in Portage La Prairie could be justified at a more prudent speed over the speed limit but not flying at 100 miles an hour past the first appropriate medical facility.
So what of the medical facility in Portage – why the need to get to Brandon? That baffles me. Even if Genevieve Weber’s maternity specialist is in Brandon, for whatever reason, the Portage District General Hospital is an 85 bed first-rate hospital that matches some of Winnipeg’s Hospitals albeit slightly scaled down.
Here’s what their site has to say:
The Portage District General Hospital serves an area of population of over 50,000 people and includes an 89-bed acute care regional centre. Care services offered include: critical care (ER/ICU), surgery, obstetrics, medicine, extended treatment, chemotherapy, hemo dialysis, community mental health, rehabilitation, respiratory, as well as a variety of diagnostic and ambulatory care services. With support from many community partners, a full range of community services (mental health, public health, home care) are available to the residents of Portage la Prairie and extended communities.
Having had a short stay in that hospital, I can attest that the care is not only first-rate, but actually somewhat better than in Winnipeg Hospitals. They are capable of dealing with all manner of illness, injury, and severe trauma from industrial, farm, and highway accidents, although in some situations patients are transferred to Winnipeg by ambulance after being stabilized, for specialized care.
In short, assessment, packing any bleeding, administering drugs to stop birth contractions, sedating and prep for transfer to Brandon via Paramedics would take a matter of minutes – certainly less than the hour it would take to drive to Brandon, putting family and everyone else on the highway at risk. Any relevant emergency information about the pregnancy is no more than a phone call and/or fax from the Hospital in Brandon.
In short what the Webers did was irresponsible, bone headed, unnecessary, and without justification. Speed and bad driving habits take too many lives on our Manitoba highways, as last weekend death toll will attest. Manitoba is not some backward hinterland devoid of proper health care facilities, and it’s offensive to read a story in the Toronto Star along with stupid inferences by a blogger who seems to suffer from all manner of irrational biases.
Apparently David Weber is some type of salesman, but I’m not buying anything he might be selling because he seems to play pretty fast and loose with the facts – enough already boob, take the punishment you deserve for a lack of common sense.
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