‘Hang up, try later’: Manitoba family unable to contact 911 during deadly heart attack

A Manitoba couple says when their son had a fatal heart attack, no one was able to get through to 911. CTV’s Danton Unger reports.

In the midst of a fatal heart attack, a Manitoba family said they were unable to contact 911 due to a Telus mobility outage – now they want answers.

Dean Switzer was just days away from his 56th birthday when, on Sunday, March 23, he suffered a heart attack in his home just outside Fisher Branch. Dean’s parents told CTV News his wife and friends – all Telus customers – tried calling 911 over and over again, but weren’t able to get through.

“The people there were panicking and trying to call (911),” said Dean’s father Raymond Switzer. “Everybody was getting the same message on their phones – hang up, try later.”

Wayne Imlah was there that night. He was doing CPR on his close friend as his wife desperately tried to contact emergency services.

He said in total about 18 calls were made to 911, but none got through – the only answer they received was an automated message.

“We can’t take your call right now, try again later,” he recalled. “Sometimes it just rang and rang and rang. There was no response at all.”

Imlah said they eventually were able to get help after calling a family friend, an RCMP officer who was able to get an ambulance to the house.

However, Dean died later that night.

“We don’t know if Dean could have been saved had they got there earlier, had the calls gone through,” his mother Betty told CTV News. “But I don’t want another family going through this.”

Telus confirms disruption impacted customers

In a statement, a Telus spokesperson said the company is investigating the incident with Bell – CTV’s parent company and 911 network provider in Manitoba.

“We are aware of a disruption that affected some Telus mobility customers’ ability to connect to 911 at one of two dispatch centres in Manitoba the weekend of March 22,” the statement reads, adding the issue was resolved and connectivity was restored by Monday.

“While we are still investigating the root cause of the issue alongside Bell, we want to assure our customers and Manitobans that emergency services are functioning properly and can be accessed when needed.”

Bell confirmed it is investigating the incident in collaboration with Telus.

Outrage reported hours after heart attack

It was hours after Dean’s heart attack that Brandon’s 911 call centre was notified of an issue.

Brandon receives all 911 calls from rural and northern Manitoba, including Fisher Branch.

A City of Brandon spokesperson told CTV News just after 1:15 a.m. on Monday, March 24, the call centre’s dispatch supervisor received a report from the RCMP of a caller unable to reach 911.

“Bell MTS identified that the failed calls were from Telus customers and informed Telus at (2:17 a.m.),” the spokesperson said.

By 11:30 a.m., the city said Telus confirmed the problem was fixed, but did not provide a detailed cause – citing a “transport issue.”

“This event led to some calls not being routed to 911,” the spokesperson said.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was also notified of a Telus outage affecting 911 calls on its cellphone network in Brandon and the surrounding areas on March 24.

“Telus is also required to file a comprehensive report with more detail on the outage and its cause,” the CRTC said in a statement to CTV News, saying this report will be posted publicly on the CRTC website.

Now, more than two weeks since Dean’s death, his family and friends are still left with questions.

“I would like to know how it happened and why it happened, so another family will never have to suffer this kind of thing again,” Raymond told CTV News.

Editor’s Note: Bell is the parent company of CTV Winnipeg.