Farmers are too stubborn for their own good, says Calgary paramedic
Martin Lesperance.
He has seen men die because they would not listen to their families and
get help soon enough to deal with a stroke or heart attack.
That’s why Lesperance has made it his mission to talk to audiences
about keeping safe and avoiding the heartbreaks that ripple from
illness and accidents.
He reinforces the words with his business card, the back of which
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outlines the symptoms of a heart attacks and stroke. Getting help
immediately is important because there are drugs that can reduce the
seriousness of the condition, but they must be taken as soon as
possible, he said.
And no rural person lives four minutes away from ambulance service. It
is more like 40 minutes.
“Maybe your heart attack won’t kill you but you could become a cardiac
cripple, only able to get up off the couch to go to the bathroom and
then come back and rest. Maybe your farm can run itself.”
Before a major stroke people usually get TIAs – transient ischemic
attacks in which people become confused or dizzy for 20 minutes before
returning to normal. If people ignore TIAs, one day they may have a
major stroke that will kill them or put them in a nursing home.
Lesperance also asked why rural people do not wear seat belts in
vehicles.
“I attend a lot of rollovers. People are flung everywhere if they’re
not buckled in. You get slammed inside the vehicle and then thrown out
… it turns your internal organs to mush.”
He said if a person is thrown from a vehicle, his chance of dying is 40
times as likely as if he stayed inside – “not 40 percent more but 40
times more.”
Lesperance also said too many men try to be weekend warriors and play
sports as if their livelihoods depended on it. He said such men should
realize “the Edmonton Oilers are not going to draft a 45-year-old guy
who’s 30 pounds overweight.”
Fix a dangerous situation as soon as you see it, said Lesperance,
giving a personal example. He knew there was ice on his front steps but
did not scrape it off. His wife slipped and fell, breaking her shoulder
while rushing their sick daughter to the hospital.
“Horrible things happen easily. On the farm there’s no one running
around making sure you’re following the safety rules. You’re the boss.”
