Taylor Rae Thibert-Maluga had been running errands when she slipped and fell in the parking lot of Towerlane Centre. Five months pregnant, she realized a fall may be dangerous to her baby.
 
 
"I had some pain going on, so I thought maybe I should go to [Airdrie's] Urgent Care Centre. I drove myself there and stood in line, seeing that there were multiple vehicles there, multiple patients, lots of them with ice packs and holding their wrists."
 
Due to the rain that had fallen earlier that morning on Thursday (January 20th) which had made many sidewalks and parking lots slick, many Airdronians had taken tumbles. When Thibert-Maluga had arrived at Airdrie's Urgent Care Centre at approximately 12:45 in the afternoon, the waiting area was already full of people. Thibert-Maluga would have to stand in line. A woman who was ahead of her overheard her speaking to a receptionist at the front desk and offered to trade spots with her, moving her up by three people. 
 
"I was in line for about an hour and a half. When I get to the front of the line I was supposed to get checked in and the firefighter came in and brought a kid in," she said. "I overheard him, I  think, saying it was a femur break or a leg break. Then the triage nurse would go and talk to him. I'm was still in line."
 
As the firefighters were inside Urgent Care, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) had shown up with yet another patient.
 
"[I overheard] the firefighters talking about bringing another person in," said Thibert-Maluga. "[I was surprised] because I thought, isn't the ambulance [supposed to] show up and not firefighters?"
 
According to Discover Airdrie's previous reporting, the other patient in question was a 70-some-year-old who had also fallen in a parking lot. 
 
On January 20th, EMS reported that it was in "Red Alert" and not able to respond to two medical calls in Airdrie. As a result, the Airdrie Fire Department was requested by EMS to attend as a first response.
 
According to Thibert-Maluga, an exchange of words was had between the firefighters who had brought in one patient to Airdrie's Urgent Care Centre and EMS.
 
"The firefighters and EMS kind of started bickering at each other," she said. "Because the beds were full at urgent care, and there was no room for anyone else to be admitted, I guess the firefighters were saying to EMS if they could take the 74-year-old or 76-year-old patient and bring her to Foothills and that  [would make room] for another patient that came in from a slip at Cross Iron Mills."
 
Thibert-Maluga said that the EMS did agree and took the elderly patient to the hospital.
 
In a previous interview with Discover Airdrie, Acting Deputy Chief Mike Pirie of the Airdrie Fire Department expressed concern at what had happened on Thursday in Airdrie.
 
"[This is something] that I don't want to see become a pattern but it is something that's on our mind," he said. "When our crews get there [to a scene] and do an assessment of the patient, they have to make a determination [if they] should wait and see if an ambulance can be attached to it. [However], in these two cases when they weren't able to get an ambulance, they had to make a decision which is either wait and continue to wait and see what happens or to just make a decision to transport them."
 
Pirie underlined that while he believed EMS has done the right thing and sent the call(s) to Airdrie's Fire Department through their dispatch centre, the fire department isn't meant to be transporting patients.
 
 "The regulations are very focused upon ambulances doing transportation [of patients]. It's a scenario where if you follow the regulations to a tee, you need ambulances to transport people. But at the same time, those regulations aren't built for these kinds of scenarios. This is not normal and we don't want firetrucks taking people to clinics, but we don't have a choice."
 
For her part, Thibert-Maluga waited for over an hour before she left to go to her doctor at a walk-in clinic. 
 
"I see that [those working at Airdrie Urgent Care] are all trying their hardest. It's definitely hard when you're short-staffed and overwhelmed with all these patients but something definitely needs to be done in Airdrie," she said. "I'm glad I didn't have to call an ambulance because I don't know if I'd still be laying there or not."