Family waits for answers on why stroke victim left on bus for 2 hours

The family of a woman who had a stroke on a Vancouver bus last year is still waiting for an explanation and apology from Coast Mountain Bus Co.

In June 2007, Nadine Laughlin had a stroke in a seat just behind the driver.

Nobody came to her aid for two hours and Laughlin — confused, unable to speak and vomiting — suffered in silence before throwing herself into the aisle to get the bus driver's attention.

When she finally received medical care, it was too late for doctors to reverse some of the stroke's effects, and Laughlin now has difficulty walking and talking.

After the incident, the Laughlins said they tried for three weeks to talk directly to a representative of Coast Mountain, but that they got no response. They then contacted CBC News last October for the first time, hoping to get the company to respond to their concerns and get an explanation.

When contacted by CBC News at that time, Doug McDonald, director of communications for the bus company, said, "The first we heard of the situation is a call from you."

The company also said drivers are supposed to check for passengers at the end of a route and it would look into what happened.

No contact for a year

But for the past year, the family says they have heard nothing from the bus company. They recently contacted CBC News to voice their concerns.

"I just want Coast Mountain to recognize me," Nadine Laughlin told CBC News earlier this week.

Laughlin's daughter Gina said she still doesn't know if the bus driver was disciplined and she can't believe driver training hasn't changed.

She said her family isn't looking for compensation, just changes at Coast Mountain.

"Is this going to happen again? Is he [the driver] going to know what signs to look for?" she said.

Laughlin said she had to quit her job to look after her mother and it's unacceptable that no one from Coast Mountain called to find out her mother's condition.

Communication breakdown, says company

Coast Mountain media relations manager Derek Zabel told CBC News that nobody contacted the family since that time because of a communication breakdown between departments.

"We had two different departments working on it. We didn't get a letter sent out to them and we didn't get in contact with them," said Zabel.

But the firm believes the driver did nothing wrong.

"We did a full investigation and there was no negligence on the job. When he knew about the incident, he did what he was trained to do and pulled the bus over and got help immediately."

Coast Mountain Bus Co. is the Metro Vancouver bus operator owned and operated by TransLink, the regional transportation authority.

Bus driver failed to check, family says

Nadine Laughlin boarded a bus that runs from MacDonald Street to Knight Street on June 22, 2007.

The family said she was sitting in the front left seat behind the driver, with a blind separating the two, when she suffered the stroke.

Eventually, the bus reached the end of the route on Knight Street, where the driver was supposed to check the bus but did not, according to Laughlin.

During the return ride, Laughlin said she began to vomit but still no one helped her. It was only after she "threw herself on the floor" that an ambulance was called, she said.