N.B. woman recalls how close she came to suicide after ER sent her home without help
CBC
WARNING: This story contains details about suicide.
Ashley Chase feels let down by a system that promised to do better after the 2021 suicide of a teenager who'd waited nine hours for mental health help at a Fredericton emergency room.
The same thing happened to Chase in May. Different hospital, same story.
And were it not for a well-timed phone call from a friend, Chase said, it would have had the same outcome.
On May 15, she took herself to the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville and told them she wanted to die by suicide.
A kind triage nurse told her she was glad Chase had decided to go to the ER.
"Any notion of an empathetic and caring experience ended there," Chase said.
The ER doctor didn't seem to know what to do with her, she said.
"He told me that I was welcome to sit in the room they had given me until I felt safe enough to drive myself home. And then he asked me what else I had thought they would be able to do for me at the ER."
Chase said she still has a hard time forgiving the doctor.
"He knew ... I didn't have family with me, I didn't have a friend with me. He let me walk out of there with him as the only person who knew — and he did nothing."
Yet she was more disappointed than surprised, she said, having heard about Lexi Daken's experience.
After waiting for hours for help at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital ER, the Fredericton teen got only a referral for followup care and went home with a sense she'd been a burden. She took her own life.
That night at the ER in Waterville, Chase felt hopeless and went home. She said she Googled "how to tie a hangman's knot."
The lawyer for a man accused of drugging and raping seven women wants a Calgary judge to call off the trial due to his client's inability to speak, the result of a stroke last spring.
Local politicians and waterfront users say the province's sewage plan for the redevelopment of Ontario Place could make a popular part of the waterfront a health risk for beachgoers, rowers and swimmers.
The P.E.I. government has halted plans to purchase more electric school buses due to the financial uncertainty surrounding Lion Electric, the company that manufactures most of the vehicles for the province.
A city councillor is suggesting the City of Calgary do an external review of how its operations and council decisions are being impacted by false information spread online and through other channels. Coun. Courtney Walcott said he plans to bring forward a motion to council, calling for its support for a review. He said he's not looking for real time fact checking but rather, a review that looks back at the role misinformation played on key issues. Walcott cited two instances in 2024 where factually incorrect information was circulated both online and at in-person meetings regarding major city projects: council's decision to upzone much of the city, and the failed redevelopment proposal for Glenmore Landing. "Looking back on previous years, looking back on major events and finding out how pervasive misinformation and bad information is out there and it's influence on all levels of the public discourse is really important," said Walcott.
Quebec's public security minister said Tuesday the province was sending more officers to the U.S. to help fight organized crime near the border.
Ontario officials estimate that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on Canadian goods could cost up to half a million jobs, Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday, as he called for stronger and more visible action from the federal government.
A 37-year-old man from York, P.E.I., who was reported missing in New Brunswick yesterday has been found dead, the New Brunswick RCMP said in a news release.
The number of Londoners seeking community housing is on the rise, according to the city's latest homelessness data.
The union representing mechanics and labourers at Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. says 99 per cent of its members have voted in favour of strike action.
Last spring, Caio De Naday Hornhardt believed his former landlord had done him wrong, with a same-day eviction.
Blair Davis says he was in the paddock of his West Lawrencetown, N.S., farm several years ago when he first heard a buzzing noise and looked up to see a drone hovering overhead.
It's January and that means residents of Miramichi are experiencing a now-annual round of anxious speculation: will the Centennial Bridge close completely this year?
Police say a man who was shot in a parking lot in Lévis on Saturday night was likely not the intended target.
A judge has dismissed comments a Manitoba woman made during her arrest about consuming alcohol before hitting her boyfriend with a school bus because her Charter rights were breached.
Two Saskatchewan families say they felt more like hostages than guests of a resort in Mexico when they got severely ill and were pressured by staff to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in exchange for medical help.
Edmonton utilities company Epcor has dropped part of a fee charged to customers who opt out of the installation of new water meter reading devices.
Many, including B.C.'s premier, have called for a Team Canada approach to Donald Trump's tariff threat. But it seems some provinces are going it alone.