Family’s Tragic Story Details EMS Realities

It seemed like the ambulance took 30 or 40 minutes to arrive, according to the Porter Bush and his family after his 2 year-old daughter choked on popcorn at their rural Elmwood (Ill.) home. Actually, it was 17 minutes, still to long to save the little girl who had stopped breathing. Shannon Bush died three days later in a hospital, her brain unable to recover from the initial lack of oxygen. Now Porter is recalling the details of the story, including his absolute frustration with Fulton and Kno County dispatcher who he say’s never told him, “Help in on the way.” So Porter hung up the phone and drove to a nearby ambulance station, which he found empty. Read Porter’s account, including a cellular phone battery that fell out of the handset, 911 call transfers and EMS unit staffing. Read more here. See an incident map after the break.

The Brush family lives in a rural area near the convergence of three county lines. In this case, all three counties were involved in the emergency response, which took 17 minutes.
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