A passerby picked up a stranded nurse on her way to help a bleeding man after the Teslin ambulance broke down on the side of the Alaska Highway in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

The break-down led to the nurse arriving to the patient about 20 minutes later than she normally would have, said Pat Living, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Services, which oversees the ambulance service.

The man is currently in Whitehorse General Hospital in stable condition. A hospital spokesman said he couldn't go into the extent of the man's injuries.

'A call came through from the RCMP that an individual had accidentally stabbed himself in the bathroom on a bus coming to Whitehorse,' said Living.

The Teslin nursing station received the initial call at 1:36 a.m. Tuesday and the ambulance left for Swift River 10 minutes later, Living said.

It appears the Greyhound bus may have been stopped in Swift River at the time the man was injured.

The man had been travelling from either Alberta or B.C.'s Lower Mainland on the bus, said Cpl. Steve Alexander of the Teslin RCMP.

Police attended to help out after being called at approximately 1:20 a.m., but are no longer involved as there is no criminal aspect to the injuries, the corporal said.

'About half an hour out of Teslin, (the ambulance) was apparently making some rather distressing noises,' said Living, who didn't know if the same vehicle repair shop was used this time around.

On the side of the Alaska Highway early Tuesday morning, the ambulance staff pulled over and lifted the hood. They initially thought the problem was with transmission fluid.

Ironically, the ambulance had just been in the shop for repairs to the transmission.

It turned out the problem early Tuesday morning was with a coolant hose, leaving anti-freeze to spill over.

'The ambulance has already been fixed,' Living said Tuesday afternoon.

Ambulance staff radioed to Whitehorse about the predicament, and the Whitehorse dispatcher called out an ambulance from Watson Lake.

A man driving by stopped after seeing the ambulance stalled on the roadside and asked if he could help out.

'The nurse took it upon herself to say, Yes, you can drive me down to Swift River,' ... only in the Yukon would you stop to see if you could help somebody like that,' said Living.

'(The nurse) did arrive at the scene, probably about 20 minutes later than what she would have if the ambulance had not broken down.'

The nurse provided medical treatment and was able to stabilize the man.

'The Watson Lake ambulance then arrived, but the decision was made that the individual was in serious enough condition that they wanted to medivac him to Whitehorse, so they called in a chopper from Watson Lake.'

The helicopter arrived in Whitehorse at about 6 a.m., nearly five hours after the initial call that the bus passenger had hurt himself.

The injured man arrived at WGH via ambulance, the hospital spokesman said.