“He ran toward the fire, putting himself at peril”
A nurse at the Jewish General Hospital is being praised for showing courage and selflessness in quickly extinguishing a fire in the Emergency Department in July, an act credited with protecting the lives of patients and colleagues.
Ahmad El Ahmad, who has 13 years’ experience at the JGH, was in the ED on July 8 when the fire alarm went off. Like others, he wondered if it was a drill. Then, a colleague spotted a fire in a patient’s room. “Fire! fire!” she shouted.
Mr. El Ahmad sprang into action. As staff helped patients to evacuate, Mr. Ahmad ran into a hallway and grabbed a fire extinguisher from its nook. Then he raced to the patient’s room, which was filled with thick black smoke so dense, even the emergency lights were invisible.
Without pausing, Mr. El Ahmad burst into the room, got down on one knee and doused the flames.
“All I was thinking was that I needed to save my patients, my colleagues and the institution.”
-Ahmad El Ahmad
Thanks to his quick actions, there were no injuries and the ED returned to full operations almost immediately.
Dr. Bernard Unger, an ED Physician who was talking to Mr. El Ahmad when the fire broke out, witnessed him rush toward the patient’s room with the fire extinguisher.
“He just barrelled into the room without hesitation,” Dr. Unger says. “He faced the fire head-on. I was in awe.”
Dr. Unger says Mr. El Ahmad’s rapid actions protected others and prevented the fire from spreading to critical areas of the hospital.
“He was quick, fearless and effective, and he stopped things from getting much worse,” Dr. Unger says, adding that Mr. El Ahmad is also a top-notch clinical nurse.
“He showed tremendous, unbridled courage. He ran toward the fire, putting himself at peril.”
-Dr. Bernard Unger
Mr. El Ahmad downplays his actions and attributes his skills to the training he received as a reservist with the 2nd Field Regiment, a Royal Canadian Artillery reserve unit headquartered at the armoury on Côte-des-Neiges Road at the foot of Mount Royal Park. He says an entire day was dedicated to battling fires during his officer training, which he was forced to cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though he doused the blaze itself, he says, he couldn’t have done it without others. He compares his actions to scoring a goal in a soccer game: he may have put the ball in the net, but his teammates were essential to the success of the outcome.
“I scored the goal but I didn’t win the game on my own,” he says, citing his colleagues who helped evacuate patients and guide Montreal firefighters when they arrived. “An entire team did the work.”
Mr. El Ahmad was trained in nursing in his native Lebanon and went on to earn an undergraduate law degree from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He says that ever since joining the JGH in 2011, he has been made to feel at home.
“I belong to a minority, and my name makes that obvious,” he says. “But there’s a culture at the Jewish General that always made me feel like I was part of a team. I never felt excluded. I always felt an open-mindedness here.”
Meg Hoodspith, a member of the Emergency Room Nursing leadership team, says Mr. Ahmad was already an appreciated colleague—someone who could be counted on to help boost a car battery or buy a co-worker’s birthday cake.
The day of the fire, she says, he demonstrated “outstanding bravery.” His quick decision-making and selflessness not only minimized damage to the hospital, but also reassured and calmed staff, she adds.
“Ahmad’s actions went beyond extinguishing the fire,” says Ms. Hoodspith, a Clinical Activities Specialist. “His leadership and composure under pressure were instrumental in guiding his colleagues and ensuring that all patients were safely evacuated.”
“His actions on July 8,” she says, “stand as a testament to his character and dedication.”