Ellencee,
I went back and checked my state's EMS protocols and, true enough, there is no specified wait limit. The protocols simply state that patients need to be seen in a timely manner. Vague, but fair enough.
I took the writer to mean that the child was not so much as triaged for several hours. Triage, too, needs to be timely, but, again, no time limit is specified.
In my experience, a child (or an adult) can have breathing problems that go on for hours but do not necessarily end in death. I've transported people who state that their symptoms began the day before or even longer. Some of these people were high-priority patients, who really ought to have called 911 a lot sooner. The child in question probably didn't have a high-priority condition and I hope that she (or he? Can't recall.) was at least triaged immediately upon arrival. If not, then shame on that hospital! I'd like the original poster to come back and tell us what the diagnosis turned out to be. Also would like to know how long it was before he WAS seen, since the poster didn't tell us this, either.
Several years ago, my mother was transported by a friend to the ED at a local hospital for sub-sternal chest pain. She sat, untriaged, in the ED's triage waiting room until I arrived. For quite some time I attempted to have her brought to the triage assessment area, saying that this is a chest pain patient with a history of heart disease and two previous angioplasties, but they said she had to wait because they were very busy. The last time I approached the triage nurse, I saw that they were evaluating a person with a broken hand. At that point I told the triage nurse that either they evaluated my mother right away or I would call for a medic unit via 911 to pick her up and take her to another hospital. I was raising my voice by this time, as my mother had been waiting for over an hour. They let her back, assessed her, deemed her to be having a heart attack, and took her to the ED proper right away. She spent the next week in the hospital.
So, you see, I'm a little bit sore about long hospital wait times, not just on account of my mother, but because I hear about and see it all the time as an EMT. But, you are correct, no definitive time limitations exist.