"It is catastrophic what is happening in our [ERs]," Suzanne Ducas said in French.

A man in his 70s died in the waiting room of the Edmundston Regional Hospital's emergency department Wednesday, when the ER had a "high level of traffic and long wait times," but the Vitalité Health Network has said it does not believe there's any connection.

This marks the fourth death of a patient waiting for care in a New Brunswick hospital ER since July.

Ducas says she visited the Edmundston ER with her daughter, who had an injured foot, on Wednesday.

Vitalité Health Network has said the patient's condition was deemed stable during triage. (Radio-Canada)

According to her, the man had been in the waiting room for several hours when someone shouted, "The gentleman is not well."

"I went to the person — because I have training as an attendant — and the gentleman was white and really not well," said Ducas.

Then a woman shouted, "code blue," and staff tried to resuscitate the man, she said.

The day before, Ducas had gone to the emergency room with her daughter and says she was told there would be an 18-hour wait. A nurse apologized for the situation, she said.

"I have the impression that there is too little staff, people are overwhelmed, resources are insufficient."

Review underway

A Vitalité review of the patient's death is underway.

But the patient was triaged, monitored and cared for according to established protocols, according to Dr. France Desrosiers, president and chief executive officer of the regional health authority.

His condition was deemed stable during triage, she said in a statement Thursday.

"At this point in time, no cause-and-effect relationship between the level of traffic and the death has been established," Desrosiers said.

Residents worried, says mayor

Edmundston Mayor Eric Marquis says residents are looking for answers soon about what happened and how similar situations can be avoided.

Some people are worried, he said. "Well naturally, it brings a lot of questions on how a situation like that can happen within the hospital."

Many people in the area don't have a family doctor and the city's only after-hours clinic closed last summer, said Marquis. So the ER is their only option.

But wait times have been longer than usual in recent weeks, with the triple threat of respiratory illnesses on the rise — COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, he said.

Edmundston Mayor Eric Marquis said the community needs a clinic where people who don't have a family doctor could seek treatment, instead of going to the ER. (Radio-Canada)

Marquis is hopeful some relief could be coming in the new year.

He says the mayors of the regional service committee met with Vitalité and Health officials in September to discuss the need for a new collaborative care clinic in the Edmundston area.

"This was received really well [by] Vitalité. So we're waiting on their side to get a proposal on how we could move along to get this facility running," he said. "We're hoping to get more news after the holidays."

Vitalité officials did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

If plans for a new clinic don't come together quickly, Edmundston council could take the issue to the provincial government, said Marquis.

"It is possible. We will have to see in the near future."