Failure to Respond! Is this True?

Hello Everyone,

I read a article the other day on Yahoo that really got my blood pressure goin. Basically what happened was an elderly man was having abdominal pain. He called for an ambulance, dispatch advised that due to large amounts of snow it might be a little while. The elderly man was calm and was ok with it. After 30 hours later and 10 calls to the dispatch, the elderly man dies. Comes to find out the ambulance crews were about a quater mile from the residence and refused to walk in the snow to assist the man, and ambulance crews wanted the man to walk to them. The man refused due to his pain level. Here is a link to the story http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587627,00.html

Now I read it and I thought it was bull****. We are there to serve the community when they need us, I believe that no matter what conditions are present we have a job to due. When there is a person who gets hurt on a quad in the woods and calls for us we don't make them walk to us. We get all the stuff we believe we need and get them, end of story. Its a huge liability to let someone die especially when we would refuse to walk a little in the cold weather. I have been part of calls where we need to do some walking just to reach the incident, and to me thats no problem at all. If it helps someone live or resolves the problem that is 100% fine by me. Now I don't know the full details on the ambulance crews side but if what was stated in the article really happened that way and thats all, then that is wrong and their certs should be pulled. I strongly urge to read and would like your opinion. If you were part of the ambulance crew and their is more details or know any details please post, I would like to know.

Thanks for reading and posting back.

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Permalink Reply by Kenny Daniel on March 4, 2010 at 10:09am

I saw the same article on television. And reacted with the same anger. I believe that if a dispatch is made and there is no "All Clear" or "Return to Service" command then it constitutes abandonement. "Dispatch... it's too cold to get out of the truck." is NOT a valid excuse to terminate a run.

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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on March 4, 2010 at 10:50am

Against everything that I feel right now, I am going to refrain from commenting until we find out all of the facts about the incident. I will say this, the bare minimum that we have to do is RESPOND!

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Permalink Reply by Chris on March 4, 2010 at 10:58am

Lets look at it like this guys and gals. If your mother or even you wife or children were laying in the yard in the snow and couldn't get up, would you tell them you were gonna wait til the snow melted before you went and helped them up. I think not. Treat people they way you would want your family treated.