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VAUDREUIL-DORION, Que. – A couple in Vaudreuil is furious after a paramedic started a language debate as their young daughter was convulsing in front of them.

Mark Bergeron can hardly believe that just 48 hours ago, while visiting relatives down the street, he had a brush with disaster when his two-year-old daughter Ella, went into a febrile seizure.

“She was staring off in the distance and not responding,” Bergeron told Global News.

His daughter was suffering convulsions caused by an abnormally high fever – but it was when he called 9-1-1 that Bergeron says insult was added to injury.

The paramedic flatly refused to speak to him in English.

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“I’m fluently bilingual, very comfortable in French,” Bergeron admitted. “But there are some terms in French that I wouldn’t understand unless I studied about it.”

Mark Bergeron and his family say that what seems to have been a political statement made a frightening situation even worse.

“To have to experience something like this, especially with a two-year-old daughter in danger, is unacceptable.” Bergeron said.

The ambulance brought the girl to the Lakeshore Hospital emergency room Saturday night.

She has recovered and was released around midnight.

Stephanie Hansen, the young girl’s mother, was terrified as she watched her daughter convulsing.

Hansen grew up in New Brunswick and only speaks English. She was scared on Saturday – but says not understanding what was happening made the situation even more frightening.

“For my family, for my friends and anybody else who might have to go through this and, God forbid, not know what’s going on.”

Global News contacted CETAM, the emergency service that serves Vaudreuil-Dorion area and a spokesperson confirmed that the agency is looking into the incident.

Quebec’s language laws make health situations complicated, but Quebec patient’s rights advocate, Paul Brunet, thinks an issue like this is clear.

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“Any patient that requires health services is entitled to be understood by the healthcare giver.”

What happened over the weekend is certainly clear in Mark Bergeron’s mind.

“We’re not talking about getting paramedics to learn Mandarin to satisfy a small percentage of our population – we’re talking about the two official languages of our country.”

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