Maple Ridge resident Dorothy Herbert, 89, receives daily care from a home support worker. She thinks the policy is "a stupid idea" and said her home support worker shares her feelings.

"To wait for an ambulance, it's too late," she said. "I don't think it's right."

It's generally accepted that a person can survive about six minutes without air before brain damage starts.

In most cases, it can take eight to 13 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, according to John Strohmaier, president of the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. union (Canadian Union of Public Employees local 873).

As a result, paramedics often rely on bystanders to provide first aid before they arrive.

In fact, Strohmaier said, a person calling 9-1-1 would be instructed in CPR or the Heimlich by the emergency medical dispatchers.

"It just makes no sense at all to withhold lifesaving care from someone and wait for emergency responders to arrive," he said.

He and Terwiel both said the region would be protected by the Good Samaritan Act, which covers those who try to help others with good intentions.

Follow-up article: Aug. 30, 2000 in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News (354 words)

Home support workers can administer first aid to clients

The Simon Fraser Health Region has changed a policy that could have stopped home support workers from saving lives.

Monday, director of home health care Pat Light issued a memo retracting the controversial policy that prohibited home support workers - who provide services such as bathing or house cleaning - from administering cardio pulmonary resuscitation or the Heimlich manoeuvre while on the job.