Donna Nadeau-Marr (centre) with friends at her favourite place, Ashcroft Bakery & Coffee Shop. Nadeau-Marr passed away on July 17, 2022.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Debra Rondquist-Tuohey

A well-known and well-loved senior died from a heart attack while waiting for medical help in Ashcroft on Sunday, July 17.

Donna Nadeau-Marr, 74, was living in the independent living side of Thompson View Manor.

Her long-time friend and helper Debra Rondquist-Tuohey found her unconscious on the floor of her apartment Sunday morning and called 9-1-1 before performing CPR until two firemen arrived at the scene.

“I don’t think Donna had been gone long,” she said. “9-1-1 helped me do CPR on her but I was not getting any response. I was talking to her, trying to get something, it was very hard for me to do. It seemed to take forever for help to arrive but I didn’t want to stop trying.”

READ MORE: No ambulance or ER available for Ashcroft senior who had heart attack and died

Despite that Nadeau-Marr’s senior’s care home was close to emergency services, no one was available to help at 11:23 a.m. that day, and the emergency room was closed for the weekend because of a lack of doctors.

“When we phoned for an ambulance it took a while to get through to dispatch and we found out the local paramedics were busy covering an absolutely huge area with one ambulance,” she said.

The ambulance service dispatched paramedics from out of town at about 11:24 a.m., according to a B.C. Emergency Health Services spokesperson.

A local firefighter performed CPR on the patient at Thompson View Manor until paramedics arrived at 11:50 a.m. to take over.

“The fire chief showed up and I asked him to take over CPR,” Rondquist-Tuohey said. “He and another guy went in and then came back out and said, ‘I’m going to call it’. The ambulance paramedics felt really bad when they arrived.”

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Rondquist-Tuohey said all emergency workers did their best and is not certain her dear friend would have survived even with immediate medical aide.

“Donna was a very tiny lady and she had gotten quite ill in July and spent time in hospital,” she said. “She recently had to go on oxygen and wasn’t eating very much.”

When asked how she feels about the healthcare crisis and lack of reliable emergency services in Ashcroft, Rondquist-Tuohey said it is frustrating and worrisome. 

“I’m a senior, we have a lot of seniors living here,” she said. “I think the best thing we are doing here is checking in on one another regularly.”

Rondquist-Tuohey owns the Ashcroft Bakery & Coffee Shop where Nadeau-Marr spent most of the past decade, meeting customers and becoming friends with the staff.

She said she wants to remember her friend for who she was and the joy she brought to the community.

“Donna needed a place to be herself and to socialize and talk,” she said. “She had an abusive husband who died in 2010 and since then she has been a part of the bakery and coffee group here. The bakery opens at 8:30 a.m. and Donna would be here every day at 8:15 a.m.”

Rondquist-Tuohey said her friend was known to spread feed out for the little birds and buy bags of peanuts for the bigger ones.

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“She would toss the peanuts onto the street and dance on them to open them for the birds,” she said. “Everyone in the community got to know Donna as a sweet lady. She would chat and pour coffee for people, and give out hugs if someone needed them.”

The coffee group at the bakery are planning a service for Nadeau-Marr in the future but a date has not been chosen yet. The main street will be closed for a couple of hours and everyone will put out bird food and peanuts to stomp on.

“Donna loved cat figurines so I will be passing those out to people who want a memento of her,” Rondquist-Tuohey said. “We are planning to get her a memorial bench as well.”

Rondquist-Tuohey described her friend as timid and tiny, weighing under 100 lbs who was always kind to people and animals alike.

“She will be dearly missed by everyone,” she said. “There is sadness but also joy. Donna wasn’t rich but she was rich in love.”

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