Veteran, cancer survivor victim of fatal dog attack
The elderly woman who was fatally attacked by three dogs on Sunday afternoon is being remembered as an avid gardener whose personality was “larger than life.”
“Rusty will be missed by many. We would like to thank the City of Calgary for the outpouring condolences,” Heather Johnson said in a Gofundme campaign organized to help the family with funeral costs.
Police say the 86-year-old woman — identified in the fundraiser by her first name, Betty Ann, and her more commonly used nickname, Rusty — was fatally attacked while tending to her garden at her Capitol Hill home around 2 p.m. after her neighbour's dogs escaped their backyard. The three dogs have since been seized by the city and are believed to be a North American pit bull terrier mix, a North American Staffordshire mix and an American pit bull.
Betty Ann was a veteran and a cancer survivor, recently in remission, and her family is remembering her as a “small but strong lady.”
“She was ready to live her golden years cancer-free,” said Johnson.
The fundraiser says she lived in Capitol Hill for 50 years, always taking great pride in her home and “especially her yard.” More recently, she lived in the home with her niece, with whom Johnson said she had a strong bond.
Following the attack, Betty Ann leaned against a garage door in her alley for about half an hour before an ambulance arrived. Her home on 21st Avenue N.W. is less than a 10-minute drive from Foothills Medical Centre, where she eventually died. Neighbours said they saw a couple of ambulances drive by to other calls as they waited.
“The disbelief and shock (are) breathtaking. It took a shocking 35 mins for the ambulance to arrive, by the time they did it was (too)
late for Rusty,” said Johnson.
Alberta Health Services launched a probe Monday into the lengthy response time. On Tuesday, AHS told Postmedia their review found the 911 call was initially triaged as non-life-threatening, causing the 30-minute delay between the call and the paramedic response.
AHS said dispatchers had categorized the incident for police response based on the information provided by the caller. From details provided to EMS by police, they believed it to be non-life-threatening and didn't immediately send an ambulance to the scene alongside police.
“When CPS arrived on scene, they notified EMS that the patient's injuries were serious,” AHS said in a written statement.
“EMS immediately dispatched an ambulance, which arrived on scene nine minutes later. This tragic incident occurred at a time of very high EMS call volumes. However, once the call was deemed high priority, an ambulance was dispatched immediately. AHS is discussing these findings further within EMS and will reach out to CPS to identify any further learnings from this tragic incident.”
Health Minister Jason Copping's office said the minister was “relieved to hear that the initial review by AHS confirms there was no undue delay in the EMS response.”
“It doesn't change the fact that this death was a terrible tragedy, or the need to address the strain on EMS,” said Steve Buick, Copping's press secretary.
“We need to keep supporting EMS and adding whatever resources are needed until we get response times back within AHS'S targets, where they were until last summer when volumes surged by up to 30 per cent.”
Earlier Tuesday, the union representing Alberta paramedics criticized the systemic issues that led to the wait. Health Sciences Association of Alberta president Mike Parker said ambulance waits reaching up to an hour are an everyday occurrence in Alberta.
“We go through this level of no units available daily ... the example of Sunday's event clearly identifies what that means to the life and limb of people who are in desperate need of paramedics,” said Parker. “This is every day and our members are absolutely devastated to the point they are leaving the industry.”
While the province recently announced plans to bolster EMS services provincewide — a move that will put four more ambulances on Calgary roads by the end of June and another five by the end of September — Parker said more is needed to ease the immediate strain faced by paramedics. He said there would be a high cost to significantly improve EMS services across the province, “probably a massive amount of money.”
“Cause and effect; you starve this system into complete disarray, where the public doesn't trust that they will even get an ambulance anymore, and unfortunately they're damn-well right,” he said.
NDP health critic David Shepherd said he was horrified when he heard of the incident and the ambulance delay. He said the province's ambulance and hospital systems have been pushed to the “breaking point.”
“This situation has become dangerously common and response times in Calgary in 2022 are the slowest on record,” he said, calling on Copping to accept responsibility for his “catastrophic mismanagement of the health-care system.”
` MUCH LOVE'
On Monday evening, a small memorial began forming in front of the garage where Betty Ann was attacked. Bouquets of flowers sit alongside a small statue of an angel. A note attached to the effigy reads, “We will miss you Rusty, much love.”
Alison Jardine, who lives in nearby Mount Pleasant, was moved to bring flowers to the site of the fatal attack. “I'm an avid gardener myself and it just hit me really hard,” said Jardine, who's lived in the area for about 25 years.
Calgary police's criminal investigation into the incident continues. Depending on what is revealed by that investigation, police say the dog owner could face charges including negligence causing death or a bylaw offence. The dogs are still being held as the investigation continues; they could be euthanized.