What took Fort Worth’s ambulance service, Medstar, an hour to arrive after a panicked mother whose baby had stopped breathing called 911?
My TV story tonight already ran long, and I didn’t have time to squeeze in some of the details I would have liked… So for all you out there that want some more information, here you go.
A MOTHER’S CALL FOR HELP
Nancy Milliken’s 13-month-old girl Aidyn had briefly stopped breathing and was having a seizure.
“She was just shaking, and she wasn’t breathing, and she was turning blue.”
But because the baby started breathing again and seemed to be stable, Medstar gave the call a low priority — Priority 3.
Frantic when an ambulance never came, the mother called 911 back three times!
“Do you know when somebody is going to be here?”
DELAYED RESPONSE
The first two ambulances that were dispatched got diverted to higher-priority calls. There was a rash of emergencies at the same time, said Jack Eades, Medstar’s executive director.
Eades apologized for the delay and said he offered no excuses.
A third ambulance, dispatched later from JPS Hospital to the family’s home in far west Fort Worth, got stuck in traffic on I-30. It finally arrived an incredible 59 minutes after the mother’s first 911 call for help.
Nearly a full hour!
PRIORITIZING CALLS
Obviously any ambulance service has to prioritize calls. The really sick or injured people need help before those who can wait. Triage 101.
Medstar says a preliminary review indicates the dispatcher gave the call the correct priority.
But nobody can argue that an hour is a reasonable amount of time to wait for an ambulance in any emergency. The “goal” for Priority 3 calls is to arrive in 15 minutes or less.
DELAY IN CALLING FIRE DEPARTMENT
The other part of this story is why Medstar waited 44 minutes to ask the fire department for help. Ironically, there’s a station just a few blocks away. Once dispatched, firefighters were able to arrive within minutes to help before paramedics finally got there.
The truth is firefighters are usually dispatched on Priority 1 and 2 calls, not on Priority 3. So dispatchers followed protocal.
But why not send firefighters in such an extreme case? Sure would have made a lot of sense, and director Eades all but admitted so.
PARAMEDIC SHORTAGE
Medstar has battled response time problems on and off for years. The basic problem is a shortage of paramedics. Medstar has 20 empty positions right now. It is stepping up recruitment efforts, offering to pay for recruits to go through 8 months of training. But many young paramedics choose to work for cities that run their own ambulance service, where they can make more money and better benefits.
HAPPY ENDING
As it turns out, this story has a happy ending. The baby is fine. Doctors say she did have a seizure from a high fever caused by a virus. But no lasting damage.
Let’s hope if there’s another delay this long, that story won’t have a more tragic ending.
This does not suprise me the response time has been horrible for the far North Fort Worth area. We have had to call the police and for example last weekend we called the police due to a disturbance. They never came, we had to call back again and they didnt come. Finally the people we were calling on had got into an altercation and someone was seriously hurt, and they finally arrived. Im sure others called as well. We also called due to our car being burgularized and after two hours they finally showed. These were not life and death emergencies but it is scary out in that area the slow response time. I hope it gets better, due to the increased population in the far North Fort Worth area.
Scott
Thank you for your efforts in this story and the mannor you have done your job. Thanks you for not pointing the finger at the employees or degrading us as other news outlets have to make ratings. I am glad this has come to light but I must say I am saddened that nothing will change. This has been a issue for over 20 years and the managment brain has not changed. We have told them time and again how to fix problems and nobody will listen. This was a sad story to make the news but what is more sad is it happens almost every day but those dont make the news. We hold call and have long response times every day. I wish someone would get our munbers every day and show that this goes no more than this one time so that maybe more people will speak up and not just Nancy. Again thank you for what you do and how you have done your job.