A B.C. woman on the same bus as a young man who had to wait longer than usual for medical treatment after the Teslin ambulance broke down credits the quick intervention of a nurse on the Greyhound run as well.

A young man with self-inflicted wounds to his neck was taken off the bus headed toward Whitehorse early last Tuesday morning. Though an ambulance was originally dispatched from Teslin, another was sent from Watson Lake when the first one broke down due to problems with a coolant hose.

Meanwhile, a nurse on the broken-down Teslin ambulance on the side of the Alaska Highway hitched a ride from a motorist who stopped to see if the medical staff needed help.

The bus arrived at the Swift River Lodge at about 1 a.m. June 8, but the young man had sat in the bus bathroom for up to an hour and a half before they stopped, passenger Rachel Sutherland, 27, said in an interview.

'He was just covered head to toe in blood, so he had sat there for a while,' she said of when he came out of the bathroom.

The young man exited the bathroom when the bus stopped in Swift River, and emergency services were contacted for help very shortly afterward, said Sutherland. She got on the bus with her nine-year-old son in Victoria to visit her daughter in Whitehorse.

The injured man got off the bus and was helped into the lodge, where several people tried to use napkins and paper towels to slow down the blood flow from his neck, said Sutherland.

At one point, someone tracked down a first aid kit.

A nurse travelling from Watson Lake to Whitehorse immediately got off the bus when they first stopped, attended to the man's injuries and spoke with him to keep him calm, Sutherland said of what she saw.

'If it wasn't for this nurse and few of the people on the bus, this guy would have died,' Sutherland said.

'I think this nurse should be given a lot of credit, as well as some of these passengers,' she said.

She called the Yukon's emergency medical system 'pretty sad', not only because the ambulance broke down but because it took so long for any medical personnel to arrive to the young man's aid.

Other people on the bus told her it's not unusual to wait for medical help for long periods of time in cases of traffic collisions on the highway, she said.

Dennis Senger, the acting spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Services, confirmed there was a nurse on the bus who helped the young man. As well, it appears a retired first aid instructor was also on board and stepped up to give the injured man immediate attention, Senger said.

Last week, a department spokeswoman said the break-down caused the Teslin nurse to be about 20 minutes later than it usually would take her to arrive on scene.

'They never showed up until three, three-thirty in the morning,' Sutherland said of the ambulance that did arrive.

'It took forever. This guy was literally bleeding to death.'

Teslin RCMP have said they received the first call for help at 1:20 a.m. When the working ambulance from Watson Lake arrived, the decision was made to medivac the seriously injured man to Whitehorse. A helicopter brought in from Watson Lake transported the young man to the Yukon's capital by 6 a.m.

The Greyhound bus didn't leave Swift River, bound for Whitehorse, until about 4:30 a.m., said Sutherland.

'I've never witnessed something like this happening,' said Sutherland, adding she found the entire episode traumatizing, leaving her shaking when she talks about it.

'I've never seen so much blood in my life.'

Fortunately, she said, her son slept through most of the incident, though he asked questions the next day.

Though she initially tried to give the young man some help at the Swift River Lodge, she became ill at the sight of so much blood and had to back out.

The incident moved her to tears and to pray for the young man's life while they waited for a medical help to arrive, said Sutherland.

The young man was last reported in stable condition.