THE CITIZENS OF MONMOUTH, WALES, are building up an anger over the lengthy waits for ambulances in life-threatening situations.

The Monmouthshire Beacon has published an editorial today (Friday) outlining just a few examples while writing about the growing problem.  One of the town councilors is complaining to the local MP (Member of Parliament) that he is receiving non-stop complaints and the he himself had to wait 3½ hours for an ambulance recently.  Last week, a man who suffered a stroke had to wait for an hour, yet the law says that the ambulance service should provide a maximum of 8 minutes to get on the scene.

Monmouth has grown in population from 9,000 to 15,000 but there is only one ambulance to serve them.  When it is on a call, the next nearest ambulance can be as much as 2 or 3 hours away.  Despite all that, the Welsh Ambulance Service, a part of the National Health Service, is planning on closing the town’s ambulance station completely.

Read the full editorial HERE.
Welsh Ambulance Service WEBSITE.

LATE WEDNESDAY EVENING IN CABELL COUNTY, West Virginia, a 76-yr.-old man pulled his car out into the path of an ambulance that was carrying a patient to the hospital.

The Jan-Care ambulance with two medics on board was taking a patient to the St. Mary’s Medical Center when James Miller pulled out of a side road directly in front of the responding ambulance.  The ambulance struck directly on the driver’s side door entrapping Mr. Miller and he died at the scene.

A 72-yr.-old woman believed to be his wife was transported and is in fair condition.

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch has the STORY.

AIR TREK IS ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S OLDEST OPERATING air ambulance services, having been in business since 1978.

Air Trek photo

On February 27 of this year they were subject to a surprise inspection and served with a search warrant based on information that was supposedly given to the FAA by a competitor.  Firegeezer reported on the raid HERE.

Subsequently, Air Trek had its operating license suspended and then, following another surprise inspection that really never took place, their license was revoked.

Over the past few months Air Trek has been in court contesting the findings, especially the dubious actions of the FAA inspectors.  They also learned that the charges were really brought by a group of disgruntled former employees.  After five weeks of hearings, the Administrative Law Judge found that the FAA’s actions were improper and that no violations had ever occurred.  The judge then ordered that the revocation be rescinded and that the company’s certificate be restored after they comply with the airworthiness requirements are restored, such as completing the pilots’ usual 6-month flight checks, etc.

Air Trek officials tell Firegeezer that they expect to be back to full operation before Thanksgiving.  They have 50 employees and operate 8 aircraft.

Air Trek issued a press release Monday that recounts the entire episode and what went on in the trial and the judge’s findings.  They are also pursuing judgement against the complainants for reimbursement of attorney’s fees and expenses.

Read the entire press release:

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 20 - The Honorable William A. Pope, II, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Administrative Law Judge, issued an oral initial decision on October 17, 2008, reversing an Emergency Order issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on June 10, 2008, which revoked the Air Carrier Certificate held by Air Trek, Inc., an air ambulance operator based in Punta Gorda, FL. The nine (9) day hearing took place during three separate sessions over a five week period.The case initially began five months ago on May 23, 2008, when the FAA first issued an Emergency Order indefinitely suspending Air Trek’s Air Carrier Certificate pending compliance with

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ONCE AGAIN A 911 CENTER IN THE ATLANTA, GEORGIA, region is coming into the spotlight following the disclosure that a dispatcher inexplicably put a paramedic engine back in service while it was en route to a dying teenager at a school.

The incident happened on Oct. 14 when a 16-yr.-old boy in a classroom suddenly collapsed, screaming “my heart!” and going into seizures.  An ambulance was dispatched along with the fire company, standard procedure for severe medical emergencies where paramedic-level care is obviously called for.

The ambulance was informed that FD was on the way, but when they arrived on scene there was no fire engine there yet.  Eighteen minutes later, the ambulance called for the fire engine.  Unbeknownst to the ambulance crew, the fire engine had been arbitrarily put back in service by one of the dispatchers while it was responding on the original call.

The second call by the ambulance successfully brought the additional help and paramedic, but the fire engine didn’t arrive on the scene until 37 minutes after the original call was received in dispatch.

The Atlanta Fire Dept. provided a timeline chart of the call to the media:

> 3:20 p.m.: Grady Memorial Hospital officials receive word of a reported seizure at Benjamin E. Mays High School.

> 3:21 p.m.: Grady sends Care Ambulance to school.

> 3:22 p.m.: A 911 operator dispatches Atlanta paramedics to the school.

> 3:29 p.m.: A 911 operator cancels the call to Atlanta paramedics. A crew from Care arrives at the school.

> 3:50 p.m.: Atlanta paramedics resent to the school.

> 3:57 p.m.: Atlanta paramedics arrive at the school. 

The Atlanta Fire Department is carrying out an investigation into the event.  The Atlanta 911 center supervisor is refusing to comment to the news media.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the STORY.
WAGA Ch. 5 has more along with a VIDEO HERE.

IT WAS RECENTLY DISCLOSED THROUGH  a freedom-of-information filing that a young woman, Rebecca Wedd, who was struck by a vehicle while walking, was left on the road for over 40 minutes because of a boundary dispute.

Rebecca Webb (Mason News Service)

At the time of the accident, the only ambulance working in the entire county was on another call.  Several other units were parked because they were not staffed that day.  So the call went out to an air ambulance that was only a 1-minute flight away.  But they were refused permission to respond because they are based in another county and for an inexplicable reason they are not allowed to tend to a severely injured person who is just over the border.

The helicopter is controlled by the Wiltshire Police and they have a policy of not flying into other counties.  Finally, after much pleading and going around to officials, the helicopter was given permission to make an exception and respond, which they did 43 minutes after the original call came in.

The 23-yr.-old woman was flown to a hospital arriving 1 hr.-18 minutes after the time of the accident.  Unfortunately she died the next day.

Even though this event took place over a year ago, it was kept covered up by authorities until the Daily Mail newspaper retrieved the information through court challenges.  It is not a unique happening in UK lately, though.  Long waits for emergency medical care are becoming more commonplace as the bureaucracy of the National Health Service gets more bogged down.

Read the full story of this poor woman in the Daily Mail’s REPORT HERE.

Hat tip: John M.

IN WERMELSKIRCHEN, GERMANY, AN AMBULANCE WAS RESPONDING on an emergency call Saturday morning when a car came through an intersection and broadsided the ambulance.

The collision knocked the ambulance onto its side injuring the two medics on board.  Two passengers in the car were injured also and all four needed to be hospitalized.

WieboldTV has some good raw video taken at the crash scene HERE.  (click on the left-hand video player)

Hat tip: Christian L.

A PORT GIBSON, MISSISSIPPI, WOMAN DIED FRIDAY morning after being thrown from her car while following an ambulance taking her husband to a Jackson hospital.

The accident took place shortly after midnight while Latasha Woodard’s husband was being transported for a high blood pressure-related illness.  Her car blew a tire and rolled, throwing her out onto the shoulder where she suffered major head and body trauma.  She died 3 hours later in the hospital.

At the time of the accident she was talking to her sister on her cell phone and was telling her that she had put air in the tire, but it had started “thumping.”  Instead of pulling over, she continued on and seconds later flipped.

The Vicksburg Post has the complete STORY.

IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, A DRIVER HIGH ON DRUGS drove into an ambulance traveling in the opposite direction.

Daily Telegraph photo

The New South Wales police report:

About 11.15pm yesterday (Thursday 16 October), the man was allegedly driving a red Ford Falcon sedan south along Smithfield Road, Edensor Park.

At the intersection of Elizabeth Drive, the man’s vehicle allegedly mounted a median strip before crossing two eastbound lanes on Elizabeth Drive and colliding with the ambulance, which was in the westbound lanes.

Two ambulance officers suffered minor injuries and shock as a result of the incident.

Police from Fairfield Local Area Command attended the scene a short time later. The driver of the car was subjected to a roadside breath test with positive result.

The man was arrested and charged with high-range drink-driving, negligent driving, being an unlicensed driver and possessing a prohibited drug.  Investigation disclosed that he has been without a driver’s license for ten years.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a REPORT.
The New South Wales police press release HERE.
 
 

A NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT, MAN WAS ARRESTED Thursday after he got into an ambulance that was blocking his car and drove it forward a few feet.

Police say that John Brosnan, 48, had parked his car illegally in a loading zone and found himself blocked in by a fire department ambulance that was on a medical emergency call.

Brosnan got into the ambulance and moved it, however his actions were witnessed by several bystanders who reported him to the police.

He was later arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving with a suspended license, interfering with police and taking a motor vehicle without the owner’s permission.

The New London Day has the STORY.

A BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, COURT HEARD TESTIMONY yesterday that Theresa Michelle Hawkins, 36, drank 1.5 litres of wine, stabbed her boyfriend in the stomach, and then made him call his own ambulance.

Hawkins and her boyfriend had been drinking at a pub and got into several violent arguments between there and when they got home.  Eventually Hawkins got a kitchen knife and stabbed her live-in boyfriend Jim Mitrakas, 33, lacerating his liver, gall bladder, pancreas and stomach. 

She told him that he “deserved it” and if he wanted an ambulance then he’d have to call for one himself.  Then she went and hid underneath the house where the police later found her.

The court found her guilty and sentenced her to three years in the alcohol-free prison.

The MacQuarie National News has the STORY.

A MAMARONECK, NEW YORK, AMBULANCE HAD JUST left its station on an emergency response Tuesday night when a car pulled out of a parking lot into its path.  The resulting collision killed the 90-yr.-old man who was driving the auto.

Journal News photo

Donato Protano was leaving an Italian social lodge that he visited regularly at 8:50 pm when he drove out of the lodge’s parking lot and collided with the ambulance that had four EMS members on board.

The incident occurred next door to a fire station and the FF’s were on the scene immediately.  The impact had driven Protano over onto the passenger seat of his car and he was extricated quickly out that side.  While CPR was immediately begun, they had no success resuscitating him.

A lodge spokesman said that Protano normally had someone drive him at nighttime, but this time he didn’t.

There was no report on any injuries, if any, to the EMT’s.

The Journal News has the STORY.

JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI, IS HAVING TO quickly assemble and staff an emergency ambulance service.  The EMS for the city is currently being provided by the Capital Region Medical Center, but they have given the city notice that they will discontinue the service as soon as the city can get organized. 

The hospital, part of the University of Missouri Health Care program, has been losing $800,000 a year on the service and cannot continue to absorb the costs.

The new service will begin sometime next Spring after the city can complete a purchase of eight ambulances and hire 44 employees to operate the system.

KRCG-TV has the STORY.