By Leila Merrill
AIRDRIE, Canada — Alberta Health Services paramedic Mike Hart, 43, died while on duty at the Airdrie Urgent Care Centre on Saturday. The EMS community is in mourning, and Hart’s death has raised concerns about ambulance availability, the Calgary Herald reported.
The cause of death is cardiac arrest, according to the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, Cochrane Today reported.
Advocacy group Alberta EMS Advisory and Advocacy Coalition said there were no ambulances available in Airdrie to respond.
Hart was based in Calgary and had nearly 20 years of experience in the field. Friends and co-workers said he died of cardiac arrest near the end of an overnight shift, the Herald reported. A doctor and nurses tried to resuscitate him.
Hart is survived by his father and two brothers.
“Mike was a giant,” said former colleagues Ian Burgess, who worked with Hart when the two were both on the council of the Alberta College of Paramedics in the late 2000s. “He got involved in the profession at a very intimate level — always pushing the profession forward, always advocating.”