Woman suffers heart attack after being spit upon by man refusing to wear mask

NELSON — A hotel worker in Nelson suffered a heart attack shortly after a confrontation with a patron who refused to wear a mask and wouldn’t leave the hotel’s coffee shop.

Rob Little, manager of The Adventure Hotel, says it happened last Friday when their accountant was called to help deal with a man who was shouting and ignoring new provincial rules to wear a mask to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Little says when the woman intervened, the man spat on her and walked away.

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Police were called and Little says about 90 minutes later, the accountant, who’s in her 50s, collapsed from a heart attack that required her immediate transfer to hospital in Kelowna.

Nelson police say the man was taken into custody and is banned from the coffee shop pending a court appearance on an assault charge, while officers try to determine if there’s a connection between the spitting incident and the woman’s heart attack.

Little says his co-worker is conscious and able to speak with family but remains in intensive care “fighting for her life.”