The following report by CBS2 raises eyebrows on its reader, and will allow NYC residents to realize how blessed they are to have Hatzolah just 2 minutes away….
An 88-year-old woman collapsed last week on a Midtown street and wound up waiting nearly an hour before an ambulance arrived. CBS 2 HD has learned her story is not unique. Agonizing waits for emergency help are becoming all too frequent.
Documents obtained by CBS 2 HD paint a horrifying picture of delay. In just one hour on Tuesday some 40 emergency calls were put on hold for between 20 minutes and two hours because no ambulances were available.
“It is unbelievable, but that has become the norm of late,” said Patrick Bahnken, president of the Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Inspectors Union.
On Tuesday:
* A 15-year-old boy with a foot injury had to wait 1 hour and 58 minutes for an ambulance.
* A 50-year-old man in diabetic shock had to wait 1 hour and 22 minutes.
* An ailing 37-year-old woman had to wait 1 hour and 14 minutes.
* A woman in her 20s, who was feeling ill, had to wait 1 hour and 28 minutes.
* A 40-year-old woman with a broken leg had to wait 45 minutes.
Union officials say these stats show an alarming trend that can have dire consequences.
“If a sanitation truck doesn’t show up your garbage piles up,” Bahnken said. “If the trains and buses don’t run, you’re late to work. If the ambulance doesn’t show up in a timely fashion, people die.”
Bahnken blames critical staff shortages and low salaries for lagging response times, response times that are supposed to average just six minutes.
“The reality is that we’re just throwing bodies at calls and hoping we get there in a timely fashion and it’s not working,” Bahnken said.
Bahnken says New York City is down 200 EMTs and 100 paramedics.
A spokesman for the FDNY admits there are staff shortages, but says it’s exacerbated by summer heat waves which produce an increase in emergency calls.
(Source: CBS2 HD)
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13 Responses
Other groups and organizations,includng churches must start volunteer services just like the police have with the auxillary police and our people with Hatzolo. We cannot let Hatzolo become the only group people depend on. They are so good and help everyone;and that is not an excuse for others to slack off. Volunteer services sponsored by the Red Cross should be started. We cannot always get things done only for money. Lives are precious,and all citizens must help their fellow neighbors.
Oh, yea.
And who was the fist on the scene friday night when a non-Jew was found on the street in traumatic arrest? You got it, Hatzolah!
So much for those arrogant liars from thee rant who claim that Hatzolah only helps their own.
Want the real reason for long wait times? Just read the article carefully:
* A 15-year-old boy with a foot injury
* An ailing 37-year-old woman
* A woman in her 20s, who was feeling ill
* A 40-year-old woman with a broken leg
Why do these people need an ambulance? Are they having difficulty breathing, chest pain, hemorrhaging…? No. Because they want a free car service and free medical attention. EMS is no longer for EMERGENCY medical services, now they’ve become like visiting nurses. It’s convenient, so they call EMS and make the 74 year old in diabetic shock who needs medical attnetion wait an hour while they could’ve hopped in a car and headed over to the local ER in 5 minutes.
is short staffed the only reason? or “heart” to help someone is also as reason, speeding for a freinds life…, it can be any other service, no one will ever beat Hatzolo, and dont forget, they get paid and not hatzolo… ME KAMCHO YISROEL!!!
#3 just so that you should know if you use an ambulance to get to the hospital they will send you a bill for about $500
#5 – And all those who use the ambulance for “clinic visits” are the ones who will never pay a cent of the bill.
This probablem is throughout the entire US, every EMS system will tell you the stories of the those who get EMS rides 3x/week for ridiculous things.
B”H we have Hatzolah and let’s NOT abuse them.
I spent 8 hours this afternoon/evening on the streets of Manhattan, and was sent from one end of the borough to the other. Don’t tell me it’s an issue of lack of “heart”. Every patient I had today, from the Heroine addict in respiratory distress, to the family of a DOA were all treated with respect. The issue is the patient that waitied for 74 minutes at a clinic ACROSS the street from St. Vincent’s with nothing wrong with her. The people using EMS as a cab service are hurting the system. The money is an issue a President Bankhen put it ALSO. The staffing issues are a problem also. But PLEASE don’t ever minimize the work MOST of us are out there doing EVERY single day.
the london ambulance service official targets for response times are 8-12 minutes for code 1, meaning respiratory arrest or cardiac arrest or other imminent risk to life, and longer for other calls. in my experience, when my baby stopped breathing, it took a full 10 minutes on a stopwatch for them to arrive. b”h hatzola was with us, and my baby was already receiving oxygen from them, although they didn’t know that and couldn’t rely on that happening. today, with our own ambulances, we do not need to rely on them, and our volunteers are there within 2-3 minutes of the call coming in, even in non-urgent cases.
Mayor Bloomberg, please fix your rotten ambulance system and stop boasting about the drop in crime which is really the work of former Mayor Gulliani.
To #8, Please don’t say things that are NOT true. There is an 8 minute response time at night only in 1 area! Don’t use that as an example for the rest of Hatzolah, who response time at night is 4 minutes or-less and during the day in under 2 minutes!
just a point of fact to #8 you fail to mention that FDNY’s best response time even on a critical patient which they prioritize to respond to first is 6 – 8 minutes while hatzalah’s avg. time is 2-3 minutes including the “long” response time at night. (which they are working on)
Sanitation workers are making 55k, yet EMT’s are making only 35K. That’s why there is a shortage of staff!!
The article above is a little misleading with regard to what actually caused the delay in this case.
From yesterday’s NY Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/06/10/2008-06-10_911_foulup_left_woman_in_street_for_hour.html
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The Fire Department was running an internal investigation into the incident, but a dispatching glitch appears to be the cause of the foulup, an FDNY source said.
Because the woman was conscious when she fell, she was assigned a basic life support ambulance, a vehicle outfitted with less lifesaving equipment than an advanced life support unit.
But shortly before the incident, a dispatcher, realizing all of Manhattan’s basic support ambulances were being used, requested that a Staten Island unit travel into Manhattan in case it was needed.
Moments later, another dispatcher assigned that ambulance to travel to midtown because the FDNY computer indicated it was in Manhattan – even though it actually was still on Staten Island, the source said.
“This should not have happened and it is an exception to the rule,” said FDNY spokesman Tony Sclafani.
“We carefully coordinate the dispatching of our resources, and that’s why EMS now has the lowest response times to life-threatening emergencies in the history of the city,” he said.
The average citywide response time to a medical emergency is 6minutes, 31 seconds, the FDNY said. It took 51 minutes to reach the injured woman.
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And the woman is not complaining:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/06/11/2008-06-11_woman_88_gives_ems_pass_on_wait.html
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She has her health, and she’s not holding a grudge.
The 88-year-old woman who collapsed on a midtown street and had to wait nearly an hour for an FDNY ambulance to arrive after it was mistakenly dispatched from Staten Island insisted Wednesday that she held no hard feelings.
“There are two kinds of people, the complainers and the noncomplainers,” said the woman, who requested that her name not be printed. “I’m not one of those to complain.”
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