The man who overdosed on heroin at the Occupy Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»tent village Thursday morning was released from St. Paul's Hospital after only three hours and returned to the protest camp, according to a volunteer medic.
Leah Pagels said the man, an aboriginal person from Arizona who is an alcoholic and drug addict, suffered cardiac arrest in the original incident. His health took a turn for the worse again on Friday afternoon at the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Art Gallery's north plaza and he was taken to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»General Hospital.
"I came in about 5 o'clock, he had been passed out in the medical tent for an hour, barely responding to pain stimulus," Pagels told the Courier. "He was unconscious and his vitals were fluctuating."
Pagels said he should have been kept overnight Thursday for observation, but was discharged after a discussion about long-term treatment soured when hospital staff found out he was an American citizen.
"He would have died initially on Thursday if he didn't receive care," she said, referring to Occupy Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»volunteer medic Mathew Kagis who administered life-saving CPR.
Pagels said the man went in and out of consciousness during a five-hour wait at VGH and didn't wake up after a blood test. That prompted her to complain, though emergency room personnel said they were understaffed.
"The attitude I got was one of complete dismissal, bordering on hostility from one staff member," Pagels said. "The idea we have medical care without borders is not true at all."
Pagels said the man is named Tyler, but she declined to give his last name. He is missing a leg after a freight train accident. He was asked to sign a waiver stating he would pay $800 for medical treatment. A social worker is now involved in the case, and the man was transferred to a detox clinic for a week.
"He wasn't aggressive, he was compliant," she said. "I find him very pleasant, a guy that hasn't been given the best opportunities in life."
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Coastal Health spokesman Gavin Wilson declined to comment on the case because of privacy laws but said uninsured or foreign patients are not turned away or treated differently.
"Foreign nationals are asked to pay for their care, and there are set rates for various procedures or consultations with physicians, including emergency physicians," Wilson said. "Americans are sometimes surprised they are asked to pay for their care in Canada, assuming that everything is free. Ultimately, however, if someone is in need of medical attention, we do not turn them away."
The tent village is under pressure from Mayor Gregor Robertson to shut down after Ashlie Gough, a 23-year-old from Victoria, was found unresponsive around 4:30 p.m. Saturday in her tent. She was declared dead on arrival at hospital. B.C. Coroner Service is investigating.
Robertson conducted a news conference outside the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Art Gallery's Hornby Street entrance after 8 p.m. Saturday and said he directed city manager Penny Ballem to take steps to remove the tents. Robertson claimed he had visited the camp on several occasions. He left in a car Saturday without visiting the tent village.
"I have not seen him once," said volunteer medic and city council candidate Chris Shaw. "The mayor is playing politics with a tragic incident. If it happened two blocks away he would not have cared."
Notices signed by Ballem were posted at the VAG's north plaza Monday morning, asking protesters to immediately remove their tents and belongings "so that the safety concerns are addressed."
Ballem's letter said protesters would remain welcome at the site and the city committed to retain the stage and electricity supply.
