During a heart attack, the chance of survival decreases with each minute.

When Darwin Norris collapsed during a bike ride up Flaherty’s Hill on Aug. 25, his family watched precious moments ticking away as they frantically tried to call 911. But because of spotty cell coverage, the call was routed to a 911 center in Canada. Where cell service is weak, calls are often picked up by the nearest, and strongest, signal. In this case, it was just across the border.

By the time Orcas emergency responders arrived on the scene, Norris had been unconscious for 15 minutes.

“Canada has a big 911 system, so they are good at routing out an errant phone call,” fire chief Mike Harris said. “But even with the best system, it’s a low pririory for them. It’s frustrating for us … I can’t say for sure how long this call was delayed, but it was at least several minutes.”

Orcas EMTs administered a defibrillator, performed CPR, and gave Norris cardiac drugs, but it was too late to save him.

The 64-year-old Canadian was on vacation on Orcas with his wife. They were biking near Rosario with a tour group when he collapsed and died.

“The heart’s ability to respond to that defibrillator shock decreases every minute,” Harris said. “He was otherwise healthy, and he didn’t have a history of heart problems. I think we just got there too late. My people deserve to feel like their efforts are not in vain. On this particular call, we had a delay that could have been prevented.”

For cell users, the fire department recommends calling a local number, 378-4141, rather than 911. That number goes directly to the sheriff’s office, where there is 24-hour dispatch.

This most recent incident has illuminated a problem that Chief Harris calls “scary”: poor cell service interfering with emergency response time.

“These people called 911 and got routed to Canada, and yes, it took a few extra minutes. But here’s our real fear: having no signal at all,” Harris said. “There are certainly places on the island where you are not even getting Canada.”

Harris says improving cell coverage would also allow the department to use alphanumeric pagers, which are more efficient and require less maintenance than the department’s current pagers. In addition, emergency responders could send electronic data about patients via their cell phones.

“That’s the way the mainland has been for a while,” Harris said.

Cell regulations

In April, the San Juan County Council took one step closer to better cell-phone coverage throughout the islands.

The council approved removing the local rules on personal wireless communications facilities from the county Comprehensive Plan, and inserting them instead into the Unified Development Code (UDC).

The council set its sights on better coverage nearly 18 months ago, prompted by the concerns of local fire chiefs and emergency responders. The council created a task force and then asked it to identify what steps would be needed to improve cell-phone coverage.

Creating a permitting process and design standards that reflect advancements in wireless technology is seen by the task force as crucial to allowing wireless providers to build a more effective network. Because the comp plan can only be modified once a year, the council felt these goals would be better achieved under the UDC.

The switch has not resulted in an immediate change in rules governing wireless communications. The regulations, which include a 500-foot setback from residential properties outside urban growth areas or activity centers, will remain intact until a new set of design standards are developed. County council chairman Richard Fralick said the council recently moved cell phone regulations to the top of its UDC priorities.

“We hope to be bringing forth an amendment shortly,” he said. “Our hope is to get to this by the end of the year. It is certainly needed in terms of our emergency service. The difficulty is that we have a pipeline that we have to go through, and we can only get so far because of staff shortages.”

Once the design standards are amended and approved by the council, chief Harris is hopeful that coverage can be improved without unsightly cell phone towers.

“There is technology available that could increase coverage without putting up new towers,” he said. “We can improve cell service with just little repeater antennas.”