Man Dies When 911 Call goes unheaded for 30 hours..

[Stuart G]

PITTSBURGH - With her boyfriend in severe abdominal pain, Sharon Edge called 911 for an ambulance in the early morning hours of Feb. 6. Heavy snow was falling — so heavy it would all but bring the city to a standstill — and Curtis Mitchell needed to go to a hospital.

"Help is on the way," the operator said.

It never arrived.

Nearly 30 hours later — and 10 calls from the couple to 911, four 911 calls to them and at least a dozen calls between 911 and paramedics — Curtis Mitchell died at his home. His electricity knocked out, his heat long off, the 50-year-old former steelworker waited, huddled beneath blankets on his sofa.

"I'm very angry, because I feel they didn't do their job like they supposed to," said Edge, 51. "My man would still be living if they'da did they job like they was supposed to. ... They took somebody that I love away."




msnbc:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35631879/ns/us_news-life/

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This story happened last month..I do not recall reading about it. No matter what the circumstances, this is totally disgusting.

[Vinca]

1. I can't imagine such negligence. During the last big storm

we looked out the window and saw a police car, a snowplow and a fire truck headed up the hill on our dirt road. We never did find out what was going on, but a clogged road wasn't getting in the way.

[On the Road]

6. That's What it Would Have Taken

I have never seen that, but emergency responders need to have some sort of contingency plans for snowstorms.

Baltimore was paralyzed for the first couple of days, including police and ambulances. There was over three feet of snow on the ground, and our neighborhood wasn't plowed for twelve days. It would have taken a special plow to respond to a call like this.

I am sympathetic with the city to some extent, since people outside the snow area don't realize how bad it was. But in thirty hours, the 911 group should have been able to do something.

[DoctorMyEyes]

2. There was a similar story concerning a baby

Another story with a happier ending thanks to the foster mothers determination.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/weather/22607567/detail.html

The city failed. Failed massively. Heads need to roll.

[Stuart G]

3. It is not like "snow" is some sort of unusual problem in a place like Pittsburgh

Even a whole lot of snow. A modern city should have some kind of "plan" for such situations.

[Iggo]

7. Is that the one where they stopped 3 blocks short of the patient...

...and called him and told HIM to walk to THEM?

If you signed up to save a motherfucker's life, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE TRUCK YOU GODDAM HEROES!!

Oy. Sorry. That one really bugs me.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. I looked at the MSNBC story and the accompanying photograph

I wonder if the color of Ms. Edge's skin or the poverty of her neighborhood was a factor and whether the same thing would have happened to a white person living in one of the more affluent neighborhoods.

[Stuart G]

5. Unfortunately that might have been a factor..sadly...nt

[MagickMuffin]

8. Plus living on the 'wrong side of the tracks'

— Twice, ambulances were as close as a quarter-mile from Mitchell's home but drivers said deep snow prevented the vehicles from crossing a small bridge over railroad tracks to reach him. Mitchell was told each time he'd have to walk through the snow to the ambulances; in neither case did paramedics walk to get him.


:cry:

[RamboLiberal]

9. I posted the story in LBN right after it broke here in Pittsburgh area

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4272587

BTW, policy announced over the weekend - responders now have to reach the door of the caller. No more asking a patient to walk to them.