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“The child was vital signs absent — no pulse, no breathing — and basically the decision was made, ‘We’re not going to get a unit in here any time soon with these types of crowds, so they took the infant over in a police cruiser to the hospital.'”

Mayor John Tory said the incident “increases my own determination” to see a review of the parade.

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And a joint statement from the city, Toronto Police and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment said reports that neither medics nor police could get to the baby are unfounded. The infant arrived at hospital in six minutes from the police arriving at the scene.

“The death of a child is always tragic and the City of Toronto, its agencies and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) express their deepest condolences to the baby’s parents and family for their loss,” said the statement.

Tory, meanwhile, added while the the parade was supposed to be a joyous occasion, “the success of it put a huge strain on, and caused significant risk, and I think we’re going to have to find better ways to do it going forward.”

Merriman added that the annual Caribbean Carnival’s Grande Parade — with an estimated 1.3 million attending each year — is given more paramedic resources than the Raptors celebration event. He also said there should’ve been double the number of paramedics allocated to the Raptors parade.

“It was chaos, absolute chaos — it was like packing sardines in a can. There was no where to go.” said Merriman.

It also took about an hour for paramedics to get another patient — who suffered a heart attack — to a downtown hospital from Nathan Phillips Square. In that case, people were beating on the ambulance trying to get the paramedics to attend to other people in need of assistance.