SFU's emergency protocol questioned after student dies during midterm exam

Some students at Simon Fraser University are questioning if the university has the properprotocolsin place to respond to emergenciesfollowing the death of a 58-year-old man during a midterm exam.

According to SFUpolicy, staff and students are instructed to call campus security in all cases of emergency. Securitywill then call 911 if necessary.

But some students have expressed concernover how efficientthis policy is afterthe man went into medical distresslast week.

On Oct. 17, students were writing theirarchaeology midterm examwhen the 58-year-old man began breathing heavily.

"The snoring got quite violent and he started shaking a bit," said Cathi-Lee Williams, 25, who was sitting in the next row over.

Williams says aninstructor tapped theman on the shoulder only to discover he wasn't responding.

A teaching assistant called campus security and students were told to leave the room.

According to another student, Lynn Tran, who was sitting three seats over from the man, security had to be called twice before someone arrived.

"Everything was just handled very poorly," Tran said.

Man given CPR

According to SFU, its campuspublic safety teamcalled 911 andthatteam arrived within six minutes of receiving the call. B.C. Emergency Health Services says the call came in as a cardiac arrest.

The campus public safety team administered CPR and a defibrillator, but the man died.

The students say they didn't call 911 because they'vebeen told the best course of action is to call campus security, which the teaching assistant had already done. They finished writing their exam in another lecture hall.

TimRahilly, SFU's vice-provost and associate vice-president, students and International, said he believescalling campus security firstis the most "efficient way" to respond in the event of an emergency.

Rahilly said given the university's size, a campus public safety team can arrive faster than emergency services.

"We are a large campus. We are a three-campus institution, in terms of making sure we can get to the right people at the right place," Rahilly said.

He says security will then call 911 and can conference in dispatchers if need be.

Call 911 directly, says BCEHS

B.C. Emergency Health Services says it encourages everyone to call 911. Itsays itscall-takers can provide life-saving, step-by-step instructions over the phonewhile help arrives.

It also says that it has a strict procedure when it comes to dealing with calls from SFU. While one of its call takers is on one call, another call-taker contactsSFUsecurity.

"Together with security, they co-ordinate a pre-assigned location to our paramedics and escort them directly to the patient location," a BCEHS spokesperson said.

ButSFU maintains the fastest way is to call security, who can then co-ordinate the response.

Jasdeep Gill, VP of external relations with Simon Fraser Student Society, says the university's protocol only works if security responds right away.

"The difficulty is, if security doesn't pick up your phone call right away, that emergency then turns into an even larger incident," said Gill.