It’s been more than 8 years since the ambulance sped up the hill to the West Parry Sound Health Centre Emergency Department with Tom McEwen in the back.  Now he volunteers at the hospital and each time he walks through the door a wave of gratitude still sweeps through him.

“I owe this hospital my life,” says Tom.  With a bright smile he says, “I still blame the Blue Jays though.”

It was the frustration of watching the Blue Jays lose a baseball game that drove Tom outside that day. “I decided I’d rather go for a drive on my four-wheel,” he says. “It was a beautiful day so I left my mother-in-law watching tv and headed out on a trail I knew very well.”

What Tom didn’t know that day was that someone had strung a strong wire across the trail, just high enough to catch Tom by the throat, completely severing his trachea and pinning him to the back of the seat of his four-wheel.

Tom knew he had to save himself.  No one else was around; no one knew where he was.  He managed to drive out to the road, holding on to consciousness until he made it to a neighbour’s front yard. An urgent call to 911 got him the next 15 km to the West Parry Sound Health Centre emergency room.

“I was barely getting a sip of air and a doctor had to climb on my gurney to force a metal tube in to allow me to breathe,” says Tom.  Exemplary care by the WPSHC team kept him alive until Ornge got him to the trauma centre at Sunnybrook Hospital where he faced risky surgery and a long recovery. 

“I owe this hospital everything. I am here for my wife and children because of the doctors and nurses here who did everything they could to keep me alive. Every day I have is a special gift thanks to our hospital’s emergency room team.  So many people worked so hard to save me that day, and I was lucky they were all right here, exactly where I needed them to be,” says Tom.

Tom joined the WPSHC Auxiliary to give back to the hospital, and to help other patients and their families who may be facing a crisis of their own.  “I am so happy when I see people come forward to support the hospital, either through volunteering or donating,” he says.  Because Tom knows how important it is to have the highest quality health care, minutes from your front door.