A woman on the West Island called it “the longest 15 minutes of her life.”

Last week, she was trying to reach 911 because her two-year-old son was having a seizure – but she couldn’t get through.

On August 29, Vanessa Larche was getting ready to go pick up her son, when she got a call from his daycare telling her he was convulsing.

“When I got there, I saw they had my son lying on the floor on his side, “ mother Vanessa Larche explained. “Liam’s left arm was turning blue, his hands were blue-ish, so it was clear he was missing oxygen. Something was going on.”

Educators at the daycare immediately tried to dial 911, but couldn’t get through. When Larche tried calling, she too received no response.

Desperate for help, educators flagged down city employees, who got first responders from a nearby fire station to come and help the two-year-old.

They put Liam on oxygen, and checked his vitals.

Finally, after a tedious 15 minute wait, Larche got through to Urgences-Sante.

“All I could do is lay on the floor with him, just cradle him, and pray that I wasn’t going to lose him that day – because no help was coming,” she said.

Finally, an ambulance came, but it didn’t make things go any faster.

“We sat in rush hour traffic on the 40 – just like every other person leaving work that day – there was no sense of urgency,” Larche added.

In total, she says it took two hours from the time her son had a seizure, to when he arrived at the hospital.

In a statement, Montreal police said “the storm on August 29th caused an unusually high number of calls to 911, and it’s possible the network couldn’t handle the increase.”

Urgences Sante told CTV Montreal the call was categorized as a non-emergency, which is why the sirens weren’t turned on.

“I’m not quite sure what would be more urgent than a child seizing on the floor, foaming at the mouth. I’m not quite sure what’s more urgent than that,” Larche said.

The convulsions were later diagnosed as a febrile seizure - thankfully, Larche says, it wasn’t more serious.

But moving forward, she hopes changes are made so no one else has to experience the same stress.