When the wife of an 89 year-old man dialed 911 for help in Odessa (Fla.), she expected a Code 3 ambulance. Instead, a Hillsborough County dispatcher evaluated the call, determined it was a non-emergency, and offered to send a BLS ambulance to the couple’s home, a one-hour trip. But an angry neighbor grabbed the phone, told the dispatcher she would transport Ken Ervin to the hospital, and then hung up. Ervin died the next day from an aortic aneurysm. The family hasn’t filed a formal complaint, county officials say, but they have raised questions about why an ALS ambulance wasn’t immediately dispatched for Ervin. Meg Plyant, Ervin’s daughter, said the dispatcher asked too many questions and incorrectly diagnosed Ervin’s problem. “My dad was hollering in pain,” she recalled. “He was doubled over, screaming.” County Fire-Rescue spokesperson Ray Yeakley told a reporter that stomach ailments typically aren’t life-threatening. But he admitted, “This turned out to be something much more severe.” Yeakley didn’t mention it, but the county’s dispatchers use the Medical Priority Dispatch System to evaluate and screen medically-related 911 calls. Read more about the incident here.
3 comments… add one
It will be interesting to see what comes of this case, and if the agency following MPDS is held liable. I’m not familiar with any sucessful case against a properly handled call using any PDS, so if this moves forward I hope 911dispatch keeps us updated!
EMD, regardless of the training authority, needs to concentrate on pre-arrival instructions ONLY and not try to prioritize calls medical-aids over the phone.
An EMD’s training does not provide near enough the amount of education for a person to understand pre-hospital emergency care the way an EMT or other first responder is able to.
Call screening like this is so dangerous. Im glad I live in a city where the medics usually have a 7 minute response time or less.
When I was in the ambulance business as an EMT, we went on a call of stomach pain… the man was having a heart attack and coded on the way to the hospital. Never underestimate stomach pain.
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