Montrealer says paramedic made language comment while helping elderly mother

An Urgences-Santé paramedic has come under fire for apparently refusing to clarify some information in English while escorting an elderly woman.

An Urgences-Santé paramedic has come under fire for apparently refusing to clarify some information in English as she prepared to escort an elderly woman to the hospital.

Nancy Benabou Librati says she and a close family friend, Lana, were speaking in both French and English with the paramedic, asking if they could take 91-year-old Rachel Benabou to the Jewish General Hospital, where all her files are.

“Then Lana had said to one of the paramedics, I don’t understand French. Could you explain it to me in English?” said Benabou Librati. “The paramedic…said, ‘We live in Quebec. We speak French.’”

The Côte Saint-Luc resident, who was on the phone with her sister in Florida when it happened, says she was shocked by the comment.

“I even have a hard time speaking in French but if I can speak in French and make a couple of mistakes, she could have done the same thing,” Benabou Librati tells CTV News. “It was uncalled for that she said, ‘we live in Quebec, and we speak French only.’”

She says things got heated and she started filming the exchange.

In the video, Lana can be heard saying, “She’s 91 years old and you’re worried about a language problem? You shouldn’t be a paramedic.”

“OK,” responds the paramedic, before turning back to speak to Benabou Librati in French.

“Any language you need to be spoken to in the medical system is where it should be,” Lana, who did not want to give her last name, tells CTV News. “Whether you’re French or you’re English or whatever it is, it should always be somebody to speak to you in your language, especially for medical purposes.”

Worried about her mother’s health, Benabou Librati says the exchange left her feeling anxious.

“It’s more important to speak French than take care of the well-being of my mother?” she asked. “My mother was getting very scared because all of this going on.”

Urgences-Santé notes that it is aware of the situation.

“The paramedics did offer to the family and the patient to speak English, and it was agreed between everyone that the conversation would be held in French,” explained Jean-Mari Dufresne, a corporate spokesperson with Urgences-Santé. “All our paramedics do try their best.”

Additionally, Dufresne points out that, for reasons of confidentiality, paramedics are not obliged to answer questions from anyone not related to the patient.

“Paramedics were focusing and concentrating their efforts on the patient, and that’s where their conversational skills were concentrated on, with the patient,” he said.

Benabou Librati says she’s read similar stories, but never thought she would ever experience something like this.

“This should have never happened. We live in Canada, and it’s both languages,” she said. “It is very important to speak the language that we understand the best. That’s the most important part.”

In a response to CTV News, Quebec’s Health Ministry said it was “following the situation closely,” but refused to comment further.