Man who died 'refused treatment'

A man who died two days after being attacked in a pub probably would have lived if he had sought medical treatment, a court heard.

Keith Waterworth was found dead in the bedroom of his flat in Fleetwood, Lancashire, in April 2008.

He had suffered multiple nose fractures after being punched by James Howard in a pub in Fleetwood, Lancashire.

Howard, who had just been released from prison, admitted manslaughter and was jailed for three years.

Mr Waterworth suffered a deep cut to the bridge of the nose in the attack but refused attempts by paramedics to get him to hospital.

'Unusual' case

He was found dead at his flat in Fleetwood on 22 April after suffering massive blood loss, Preston Crown Court heard.

Howard, of North Albert Street, Fleetwood, told police he had punched Mr Waterworth, a father-of-three, after being provoked.

Sentencing him on Friday, the judge said it was a "tragic case and unusual case".

A consultant pathologist had stated that Mr Waterworth would most likely have survived if he had gone to hospital, the court heard.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2009/03/27 18:44:37 GMT

Most New EMS Recruits Overweight or Obese

Massachusetts finding has troubling implications for public safety, experts say

More than 75 percent of candidates for fire and ambulance services in Massachusetts are either overweight or obese, a situation that has major consequences for public health and safety, researchers say.

"First, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal injury are important causes of [disability and death] in emergency responders, and excess body fat is associated with higher risk for both. Second, because of the nature of emergency response work, any health condition suddenly incapacitating an emergency responder also potentially compromises the safety of his or her co-workers and the community," lead author Antonios Tsismenakis, a second-year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine, said in a news release.

A team from BUSM, Boston Medical Center, Harvard University and the Cambridge Health Alliance reviewed the pre-placement medical examinations of 370 firefighter and ambulance recruits assessed at two Massachusetts clinics between October 2004 and June 2007.

They found that 43.8 percent of the recruits were overweight, 33 percent were obese, and only 22 percent were normal weight.

Excess weight as measured by body-mass index (BMI) was associated with higher blood pressures, worse metabolic profiles and lower exercise tolerance on treadmill stress tests, the researchers said.

While all normal-weight recruits achieved the National Fire Protection Agency's recommended minimum exercise threshold of 12 metabolic equivalents, 42 percent of obese and 7 percent of overweight recruits failed to meet the criteria.

The study appears online March 19 in the journal Obesity.

"These findings are strong evidence against the common misconception in the emergency responder community that many of their members have BMIs in the overweight and obese ranges simply on the basis of increased muscle mass. Even in these young recruits, we documented a very strong association between excess BMI and an increased cardiovascular risk profile," study senior author Dr. Stefanos Kales, director of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency, Harvard School of Public Health, said in the news release.

More information

There's more on fighting overweight and obesity at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A NYC EMT worker was charged with abandoning a child

by Claudette Rothman in crazy, crime

Authorities said that Paul Casson, 28, did not want to stick around for a nurse’s signature last New Year’s Eve after dropping the five-year-old boy, who was in a car accident, off at the hospital, so he forged a nurse’s signature and left the child there.

EMT workers are required to fill out Patient Care Reports and get them signed by a designated nurse before leaving the hospital.

Fortunately, for Casson, the boy did not have life threatening injuries.

If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.

DOI ARRESTS AN EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN ON FORGERY CHARGES

(converted from PDF content)  The City of New York Department of Investigation ROSE GILL HEARN COMMISSIONER  80 MAIDEN LANE           Release #22-2009 NEW YORK, NY 10038           nyc.gov/html/doi 212-825-5900  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                   CONTACT: DIANE STRUZZI FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2009                                     
(212) 825-5931
DOI ARRESTS AN EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN ON FORGERY CHARGES  ROSE GILL HEARN, Commissioner of the Department of Investigation ("DOI"), announced the arrest today of PAUL CASSON, an Emergency Medical Technician ("EMT") employed by the New York City Fire Department ("FDNY"), on charges that he forged a nurse's signature and then left his five-year-old patient at the Lincoln Hospital Emergency room in the Bronx. The office of Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson is prosecuting the case.
CASSON, 28, of the Bronx, was charged with Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree and Forgery in the Second Degree, class D felonies, and six misdemeanors. Upon conviction, a class D felony is punishable by up to seven years in prison.  CASSON has been employed as an EMT since November 2002, is assigned to Station 17, on Ogden Avenue in the Bronx, and receives an annual salary of approximately $44,520.  DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said, "Forging another person's signature, especially on a medical report, is unacceptable conduct for an individual entrusted with taking care of medical emergencies. Anyone who engages in such foolish and illegal behavior will face the consequences."  DOI's investigation began after it was notified by the FDNY about an allegation that CASSON forged the signature of a triage nurse at Lincoln Hospital.  According to the criminal complaint, on Dec. 31, 2008, CASSON transported a five-year-old child to the Emergency Room at Lincoln Hospital on E.149th St. for treatment. To properly transfer the patient from the EMT's care to another appropriate professional in the hospital, an EMT must fill out a Patient Care Report ("PCR") and have it signed by a designated hospital "receiving agent". DOI's investigation found that the hospital official's signature on the form was forged, according to the complaint, and that the official heard CASSON say he signed the official's name on the PCR because he didn't want to wait.  Commissioner Gill Hearn thanked FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and Lincoln Hospital for their assistance and cooperation in this case.  This investigation was conducted by DOI's Office of the Inspector General for FDNY.  A criminal complaint is an accusation.  A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

EMS boss from LI accused of firing BB gun at workers

BY JOSEPH MALLIA | joseph.mallia@newsday.com

8:46 AM EST, February 25, 2009

An Island Park man employed as a lieutenant with the New York City Fire Department's emergency medical services unit was arrested Tuesday after he fired a BB gun at subordinates at his Brooklyn EMS station, city officials said.

Leonard Tiberi, 38, was released on a desk appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in Brooklyn Criminal Court on April 1 on charges of prohibited use of a weapon, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, police said.

The arrest by the city Department of Investigation came after a complaint from the FDNY saying Tiberi aimed and shot BB pellets at subordinates on Feb. 9 inside EMS Station 58, at 420 E. 83rd St.

Investigators also found that Tiberi shot at walls and boxes at the station, making holes in the walls.

There were no reported injuries, the DOI said.

"Deliberately firing a weapon in the workplace is not only a dangerous and foolish act but, as this arrest shows, it is also criminal," DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said in a statement.

"Any city employee who engages in this type of illegal conduct and compromises safety can expect to be arrested and prosecuted."

Tiberi has worked for the EMS division of the FDNY since March 1996, earning an annual salary of $55,930, authorities said.

The office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes is prosecuting the case.

The criminal charges against Tiberi are class A misdemeanors that carry a maximum 1-year jail sentence. Tiberi also faces a city administrative code charge of selling or possessing air pistols and air rifles, a violation punishable by a $50 fine and up to 30 days in jail

Body Dragged Nearly 20 Miles On NYC Highways

Colleen Long - Associated Press

NEW YORK -- A van traveled for nearly an hour over busy New York City roads before its driver discovered the horrific cargo it had dragged almost 20 miles: the partially scraped-away body of a man who was plowed over by an SUV just before he got caught under the van.

Police said the gruesome episode was accidental and that they have no plans to charge the drivers at this time.

But that did not diminish the shock of seeing a dead man hooked under a van that had just traversed some of the busiest roads in the city. Police said the driver, Manuel Lituma Sanchez, had no idea he hit the victim until the end of his trip, when a bystander told him something was dragging under his van.

Investigators were working to identify the body, which was found largely intact but horribly battered. The man's heels were shorn off. His clothes and several layers of skin on his legs and buttocks were worn off. The back of his head was worn through to the scalp.

A business card, Western Union receipt and a broken iPhone were found in the man's pockets, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

The man was first hit around 6:15 a.m. while apparently crossing against a stop light in the Corona section of Queens by the driver of a black Ford Expedition, Gustavo Acosta, who immediately called 911. When police arrived, the victim was gone and no damage was found to the SUV.

Lituma Sanchez, who was about two vehicles behind, said he had noticed cars swerving but didn't see the initial accident and assumed the drivers were simply avoiding a pothole.

He drove over the victim, who was facing up, and the man's chest was hooked by a steel plate under the van known as the skid plate, used to protect the transmission and undercarriage.

"I didn't feel anything, and I didn't hear anything," Lituma Sanchez told reporters outside his Queens home. "I didn't know what happened."

It's not clear whether the victim was alive at that point.

"The van comes and rides right over the body and as it goes by there's no body there," Browne said. "The body was basically fish-hooked by the plate."

Lituma Sanchez stopped shortly after the accident to check his car but noticed nothing and went on his way. The vehicle has a low ridge around the wheels for stepping inside, making it difficult to see under the van.

Lituma Sanchez drove on the Grand Central Parkway, the Van Wyck Expressway and the Belt Parkway, winding from Queens to Brooklyn and ending up in Brighton Beach, where he works as a delivery man, Browne said. On the residential streets at a slower speed, he suspected something was wrong with his engine, and he stopped, opened the hood and checked the oil. But he did not look under the car.

He got back in and drove a few more blocks before a pedestrian flagged him to say something was dragging under his 1998 Chevrolet van. Lituma Sanchez got out of his car again, looked underneath, discovered the body and called 911 from his cell phone.

"You can't imagine the shock I felt" on seeing the corpse, he told reporters. "I'm just so nervous and very sad."

Police jacked up the vehicle and pulled the body from under the van. The corpse, found face up with the shirt and pants shredded, was covered with a white sheet as officers investigated and talked to the shellshocked, exhausted driver in a police car. The victim's bruised and bloody legs could be seen protruding from the sheet in front of the van.

An autopsy was planned for Thursday. Both drivers have clean records, police said.

Police retraced the van's route and recovered a blue jacket believed to have belonged to the victim, who was described as Hispanic, in his 20s or 30s and between 5 feet 2 and 5 feet 4 inches tall.

Police had initially believed it was a 17-mile journey, but did a closer examination of the route realized it was 19.8 miles instead.

Paramedic Accused Of Assaulting Patient

DENVER (AP)

Colorado Mug Shots A Denver paramedic has been charged with assaulting a patient in an ambulance, fracturing the man's skull and breaking his nose and an eye socket.

Thirty-year-old Alan Miller was arrested Thursday on suspicion of second-degree assault.

Miller was being held under $50,000 bail. A telephone message left at his home on Friday wasn't immediately returned, and it wasn't known if he had an attorney.

Police said Miller was in the ambulance that was taking 39-year-old Tim Smith to the hospital after Smith suffered a seizure and hit his head on Jan. 3.

Smith's wife, Suzanne Smith, told police her husband didn't have the skull, nose and eye socket injuries when he was loaded into the ambulance.

Another paramedic on the call, Shaunna King, told police they had to stop the ambulance because Smith slipped out of his restraints. She said four police officers helped put Smith back into the restraints.

Miller worked for Denver Health Medical Center at the time. Hospital spokesman Josh Harrington said Friday that Miller no longer works there. He declined to elaborate.

Police said Denver Health's paramedic division conducted its own investigation but declined to release the results without a court order. Police said they obtained hospital's report and some e-mails after a judge approved a search warrant.

Rotterdam backs EMS service

By RYAN HUTCHINS, Staff writer

Town Board rejects Mohawk Ambulance's offer for coverage

ROTTERDAM — The Town Board approved a measure Thursday night to provide funds to the ailing Rotterdam EMS, rejecting a plan that wouldn't have cost taxpayers anything.

The board entered into a contract with the emergency service organization to pay for the services provided to the town.

Rotterdam will inject $10,000 a month into the coffers of the not-for-profit, which had requested $14,000 a month from the town.

The board also briefly discussed the possibility of creating a special tax district as a permanent solution, according to Mohawk Ambulance spokesman Tom Nardacci, who attended the meeting. The board will discuss that issue at a later time, though.

Mohawk Ambulance made a proposal to the board Thursday night, suggesting it provide coverage to the town at no cost to taxpayers, billing insurance companies and patients instead.

"Now the town is going to move ahead with paying $10,000 a month for something Mohawk would have provided at no cost," Nardacci said.

But town Supervisor Steven A. Tommasone said taxpayers wanted to preserve Rotterdam EMS. Someone commissioned automated calls Thursday to urge residents to call the town and ask for the Mohawk deal. It backfired, Tommasone said.

"Overwhelmingly, the people who called wanted us to keep things the way they are," he said.

Hospitals often overlook problem of rooftop helipads

Facilities frequently have to install costly filtration systems to keep exhaust out of air system.

From the Los Angeles Times

By Rong-Gong Lin II

For years, hospital officials across the nation have had to battle helicopter fumes getting sucked into ventilation systems from rooftop helipads.

The problem is so well-known that the Federal Aviation Administration warns against placing helipads near a building's air vents.

But officials from the Utah-based National EMS Pilots Assn., which includes cautions about the design flaw in a PowerPoint presentation, said the warning is too often overlooked.

"Some hospitals are unaware of the existence of the [FAA's recommendations] and hence are unaware of many of the best practices regarding design, safety and operations," the association said in a position statement submitted to a National Transportation Safety Board hearing earlier this week.

When fumes pour into hospitals, lab tests at several facilities have found that carbon monoxide levels do not approach toxic levels. Nonetheless, the odor can be an unpleasant experience, causing employees and patients to complain.

In those cases, facilities managers are asked to take whatever measures they can to solve the problem.

After fumes caused complaints at MetroHealth Center in Cleveland, in the 1990s, technicians installed tiny microphones on the helipad so that when the noise level indicated a helicopter was nearby, air intake vents would automatically shut off, spokeswoman Eileen Korey said. A $100,000 charcoal filtration system was added in 2006, and costs $10,000 a year to maintain.

The system dramatically reduced the odors, but the exhaust continues to waft in from time to time, depending on winds and frequency of flights, Korey said.

At Akron General Medical Center, located about 40 miles south of Cleveland, managers had to take a different approach after carbon filters failed to work.

"They just don't work very long. You have to keep replacing them," said Joe Plavecski, senior director of facilities management.

Instead, Plavecski had the air intakes moved higher than the helipad; placed fume sensors near the air handling units to automatically close them when they sense exhaust from an approaching helicopter; and installed a system that automatically switches the air system to temporarily circulate air, instead of pulling fresh air from outside, when helipad lights turn on as a helicopter approaches.

At Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, which opened last year, architects designed an air intake system to keep exhaust from entering the hospital.

"Even so, we initially did experience problems with helicopter fumes," spokeswoman Roxanne Yamaguchi Moster said. The hospital had to retrofit four air handlers with carbon filters, designed to absorb the odors, at a cost of $60,000. The filters are expected to last for about a year, and will cost about $3,500 per filter to be replaced.

"We have had no reports of fumes since the carbon filters were installed," Moster said. "We are fairly confident that we have implemented an effective solution."

MAST to make sure motorists won’t miss its ambulances

By SARA SHEPHERD - The Kansas City Star

Worthy of the best-dressed list they’re not.

The back ends of all MAST ambulances soon will be plastered with highly reflective royal blue and canary yellow chevrons. Think mod ski sweater meets oversized road sign.

Obnoxious? Maybe. But officials say sticking out — even if it is like a sore thumb — is the point.

The Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust’s first striped ambulance is expected to hit the streets Monday, and motorists should see more each week until the entire fleet is replaced in a few months.

Capt. Mike D’Agostino, a MAST operation supervisor, first pitched the new markings to managers this way:

“I’ll be the first to admit that this is ugly, but keep in mind that that is what we want to achieve — we want to gain … attention.”

MAST is among the first ambulance providers in the area to follow a trend that began in Europe, where crayon-colored geometric patterns now cover the majority of emergency vehicles.

The shimmering chevrons are designed to make ambulances more visible. Specifically, they aim to help prevent crashes, which studies indicate account for more than half the on-the-job deaths of ambulance workers.

The stripes help emergency vehicles stand out, said Rusty James, incident management coordinator for Kansas City SCOUT, the bistate traffic management system.

“You would think with all the lights they have on those things that visibility wouldn’t be an issue, but it continues to be,” he said.

No MAST workers have been injured seriously in collisions in recent years, said Jason White, MAST governmental relations director. But several firefighters were hurt in 2007 when a driver plowed into their vehicles on Interstate 435 near Truman Road.

The ambulance employees on the scene dived out of the way just in time.

There have been many more “near misses,” D’Agostino said, compelling emergency responders to watch their backs on the road even while tending to patients.

“It’s scary, bottom line,” he said. “That’s the bullet that I can’t stop, that car coming down the road.”

The technical term for the concept behind the stripes is conspicuity.

First, D’Agostino said, a conspicuous object must trigger the senses to stand out from its surroundings from a distance. Next, drivers must process cognitively what to do about the object they see.

Studies have shown that chevrons such as those used by MAST — they meet in the middle, forming a peak rather than a ‘V’ — subliminally trigger drivers to steer away from them, D’Agostino said.

Emergency vehicles in the United Kingdom take the idea even further. Many sport chevrons on the back, plus oversized checkerboard patterns covering both sides.

D’Agostino said that all-over markings probably wouldn’t hurt, but that MAST is trying to balance cost with effectiveness. Because other vehicles are most likely to approach parked emergency vehicles from behind, officials targeted the ambulances’ back ends.

MAST began replacing its 56-ambulance fleet in 2006. The $6.5 million endeavor is being funded by a quarter-cent public safety sales tax approved in 2002. The stripes cost about $700 per ambulance.

Almost half of the new units are already on the streets, with the rest to trickle in by the end of April, said Jason White, governmental relations director.

New arrivals should come with chevrons intact, White said. The other ambulances will return to the Columbia dealership they came from to have the stripe decals affixed.

Several Kansas City area entities have added chevrons to the backs of fire trucks, but only a few have similar markings on their ambulances.

Belton ambulances have red and yellow chevrons covering the lower half of the vehicles’ back ends. Liberty ambulances have had red and white chevrons on the back for about a year, said Fire Chief Gary Birch.

Paul Lininger, emergency medical services chief for the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District, said the district is considering chevrons on the next ambulance it orders.

For decades, the federal government mandated that all ambulances be white with a solid orange, single stripe. But that is no longer a requirement, and the agency that licenses Missouri ambulance providers has no restrictions on color schemes, said Greg Natsch, chief with the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

As long as the vehicles are clearly recognizable as ambulances, providers can paint them however they want, Natsch said.

Natsch said he had seen more of the colorful European-inspired markings recently.

“Fire trucks have been hit by cars, ambulances have been hit by cars, firefighters and EMTs have been hit by cars,” he said. “Anything that can improve the visibility is always a positive.”

City ambulance in mishap with semi

By Kandra Wells, Staff Writer

A wreck involving an ambulance, a semi-truck and a third vehicle sent three people the hospital Thursday night, in addition to a patient who had been on board the ambulance when it was hit.

McAlester Fire Chief Harold Stewart said this morning two city firefighters who had been in the ambulance, Jeremy Farris and Rodney Leamy, were both treated and released after the accident. He would not comment on the medical conditions of the other two people involved.

According to Stewart, the ambulance was en route to McAlester Regional Health Center when it was hit by a truck at Strong and Carl Albert Parkway. The ambulance then hit another car, whose occupant was also hospitalized, he said.

McAlester police dispatched three ambulances and five police to the scene after the 8:57 p.m. collision.

Stewart said the cause of the accident is pending a McAlester police report. He said his department had been told by the police department that it would take several days to complete the report.

“We talked to them this morning, and we don’t expect to see anything until Monday morning,” Stewart said. “Sometimes, it takes a while. They have to re-create the accident and all that.”

Ambulance, Car Crash Leaves 1 Dead

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Police said one person was killed Friday in a crash involving an ambulance on New Britain Avenue in Hartford.

The crash occurred at about 7:55 a.m. at the intersection of Fairfield Avenue, police said.

Police said the ambulance was on its way to a call when it collided with a blue Mazda Protégé.

The other crash had occurred nearby at the intersection of Claremont and New Britain avenues, according to Aetna Ambulance Co. representative David Skoczulek. He said the call for that crash came in at about 7:32 a.m.

He said a second unit was sent to the first crash after the ambulance was struck. No major injuries were reported from the first crash.

The intersection was shut down following the crash while police conducted their investigation.

Skoczulek said no one on the ambulance crew suffered any injuries during the collision with the Mazda. He said supervisors from the ambulance company were at the scene to conduct their own investigation.

Airport ambulance makes DIA a safe bet.

by Jameson Meade, Denver Airports Examiner

Travel safer with DIA's ambulance service

According to thedenverchannel.com, DIA will finally get its very own ambulance stationed permanently at the airport. The report, which aired on Denver News Channel 7 and is published on the channel's website, states that this vital safety tool has been a long time coming.

Denver Health, which is the city of Denver's contract ambulance provider, will begin the service at DIA on February 11. This should cut the excessive ambulance response time from an astounding 33 minutes to just a fraction of that time.

Unfortunately, these changes come after a DIA passenger lost his life waiting on an ambulance after he suffered a pulmonary embolism last July. In this case, the report notes, the man waited 33 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

Personally, I am pleased to see that an ambulance will be a permanent fixture of the Denver International Airport. This will make DIA a more safe environment for passengers and employees alike. While we cannot change the location of DIA and its proximity to hospitals in the area, having an ambulance ready at all times will drastically cut down the time it takes a patient to reach health care facilities. Many people may not be aware that DIA does have a health clinic located in the main terminal. This clinic, along with the added ambulance service should help ensure the safety of everyone at the airport.

As a DIA employee, I am always astounded to see the number of medical occurrences that take place at the airport. Most of these issues are minor and can be handled by the team of paramedics already located at the airport, however some can become more severe. Passengers arrive at the airport nervous about their flights, stressed over schedules, on medication, and sleep deprived. These factors, along with the high Colorado elevation, can combine to make a toxic mix for some passengers.

2 ambulances damaged carrying the same patient from Waynesboro

By ROSCOE BARNES III Staff writer

The president of the Mont Alto Ambulance Squad remains bewildered over two accidents that occurred early Wednesday morning, one of which involved an ambulance driver who collapsed at the wheel and died.

The accidents occurred while transporting a patient from Waynesboro to Harrisburg.

The second accident involved an ambulance from Silver Spring Township in Cumberland County, which had been called to assist Mont Alto with a patient transport. The Silver Spring ambulance crashed shortly after 2 a.m. on Interstate 81 near Hampden Township after the driver lost consciousness and died, according to Michele Parsons, spokesperson for the Cumberland County Department of Safety.

The driver was Barry Nagle, 66, Mechanicsburg, Parsons said. No autopsy report has been released.

"He suffered a medical emergency that rendered him unconscious and he died," she said. "The other personnel tried to resuscitate him but he never revived."

Two nurses on board were not hurt. An emergency medical technician was injured and is being treated at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, she said. No one else was reported injured.

"I don't know what to think about it. Something happened to our ambulance and then to their ambulance," said Charles Baker, president of the Mont Alto Ambulance Squad and the Mont Alto Fire Company.

"We were going up Interstate 81, transporting the patient from Waynesboro Hospital to one in Harrisburg and something flew up and hit the windshield. We stopped and called for an ambulance (to aid the patient in the Mont Alto ambulance)."

The item that flew through the windshield was a piece of wood, 4 inches by 4 inches. It

penetrated the glass. No one was injured.

"We called for an ambulance and Silver Spring came and loaded the patient up and rushed to a hospital in Harrisburg," Baker said. "The last time I checked on the patient, everything was doing fine."

The Mont Alto vehicle is at a garage. Pennsylvania State Police said it was a non-reportable accident, Baker said.

Union Rep Criticizes (NYC) Ambulance Service Cuts

Days after announcing cuts to the Fire Department that include the elimination of 30 ambulance tours this summer, the head of the EMS Union is speaking out and warning that it could cost lives. NY1's Amanda Farinacci filed the following report.

Round the clock day and night, about 250 ambulances operated by the fire department are on duty all over the city, ready to respond to all kinds of medical emergencies.

In an internal memo obtained by NY1 last week, the department plans to eliminate 30 of those ambulance tours, effective July 1, to save money. Now, the president of the union that staffs those ambulances warns that's a bad idea.

"When you reduce the number of ambulances available, you drive up the response time, and somebody will die. Somebody's gonna die," said EMS Union President Patrick Bahnken.

Bahnken says this is the worst possible time to cut back since EMS call volume goes up significantly during economic downturns -- a result of people losing their jobs and their health insurance which leads to people not being able to afford medications. He also says anger and frustration lead to spikes in violence that result in more ambulance calls.

The FDNY's own statistics show EMS responded to an all-time high of 1.2 million 911 calls in 2008. That's 100,000 more than in 2003, with the number of calls increasing every year since then.

At any given time, about 20 percent of EMS tours are staffed by personnel working overtime, which the department is hoping to eliminate. The department and the union agree the tours that are cut will likely be picked up by private ambulance companies, although union leaders say that's not a real solution.

"It's a knee-jerk response that ignores a lot of other problems that are created by it. Hospital-based ambulances bring patients back to the hospitals they work for," said Bahnken.

Bahnken says private ambulances hurt the bottom line for the city's public hospitals, which lose out on patients and Medicaid and Medicare revenues. He says reducing ambulance tours could have a detrimental impact on public safety.

"I shudder to think that we go back to the 1986, 1987 period when people with major medical emergencies were waiting for 10 minutes or better for an ambulance," said Bahnken.

The FDNY insists the budget cuts have not been finalized and says it plans to meet with the EMS union February 17 to discuss the budget.

Paramedic arrested after patient claims assault

DENVER - A paramedic for Denver Health Medical Center has been arrested because a patient says the paramedic broke his nose, eye socket and fractured his skull.

Denver Police arrested Alan Miller Thursday afternoon on investigation of first degree assault.

Detectives say Miller is suspected of assaulting a patient in his care on Jan. 3.

The patient's wife says her husband suffered a seizure and was taken to Denver Health by ambulance.

She says when she arrived at the hospital, she found bruises that she says her husband did not have when he left in the ambulance.

The paramedic no longer works for Denver Health.

Ambulance driver dies, causing Silver Spring crash

A fatal heart attack may have led to the crash of a Silver Spring Ambulance and Rescue ambulance early this morning.

Township Emergency Management Coordinator Jim Hall said Barry John Nagle, 66, of Mechanicsburg, apparently suffered a heart attack that caused him to lose control of the ambulance. Attempts to resuscitate him failed, Hall said.

One EMT was injured in the crash and was taken to Penn State Hershey Medical Center for treatment.

Michele Parsons, a spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Department of Public Safety, identified the injured EMT as George Weimer, 88, of Silver Spring Township. He has some rib injuries and trouble breathing, she said, but as of this afternoon was not in critical condition, being placed in the intensive care unit of Hershey Medical Center.

State police at Harrisburg said Nagle was driving the 1995 Ford E-350 ambulance north on Interstate 81 at mile post 59 in Hampden Township at 2:28 a.m when it left the road and traveled about 950 feet before hitting a ditch and stopping. Nagle was wearing a seat belt, police said. Police said there were three other people in the ambulance with Nagle, including a patient, none of whom were injured in the crash. Parsons said she doesn’t have their names but understands that two of them were nurses from the hospital the patient, apparently a female, had come from.

The patient was originally on an ambulance from Franklin County, Parsons said, but the crew of that ambulance called dispatch to report that they had a non-injury, one-vehicle accident and needed someone to pick up the patient. Silver Spring responded and made it several miles down the road before Nagle veered off the road.

Someone from the Franklin County ambulance helped Weimer try to revive Nagle, Parsons said. The county dispatched three other ambulances to the scene, she said, and the patient was sent on her way to the hospital she had been headed for.

“As you can imagine, there’s a lot of mixed emotions (among Silver Spring emergency crews),” Parsons said. She said those who worked with Nagle described him as “a good man” who was always eager to come in for his volunteer shift.

Reforms At NY Hospital Where Woman Died On Floor

VIDEO

NEW YORK (AP) ― The improvements were outlined Thursday by Health and Hospitals Corporation President Alan D. Aviles. He was marking the opening of a new psychiatric facility at Brooklyn's Kings County Hospital Center.

Aviles says the reforms include staff increases and a new leadership team. A second phase will include patient mentors, and a consumer and family advisory group.

Esmin Green, 49, had been sitting in a waiting room at the city-owned Kings County Hospital Center for nearly 24 hours when she collapsed from her chair and slowly died on June 19, 2008.

She lay on the floor at the Brooklyn hospital for an hour before a nurse finally checked her pulse.

After an autopsy and weeks of tests, the medical examiner's office concluded Friday that Green was killed by pulmonary thromboemboli, blood clots that form in the legs and travel through the bloodstream to the lungs.

The medical examiner said the clots were due to "deep venous thrombosis of lower extremities due to physical inactivity," complicating an underlying psychological illness: chronic paranoid schizophrenia.

Green died while awaiting care in the hospital's psychiatric emergency room. EMS workers had brought her to the center on the morning of June 18. The hospital said she was suffering from agitation and psychosis and was involuntarily admitted after refusing medical review.

The emergency room is chronically overcrowded, and Green waited overnight for further care.

A recording of her death prompted national outrage when it became public last week.

After she collapsed, neither fellow patients nor the hospital's staff moved to help her, even as she thrashed her legs on the floor and tried to get up.

Two security guards and a member of the hospital's medical staff can be seen on the video, stopping to look at Green briefly before walking away.

She stopped moving about 30 minutes after falling and was dead when a nurse finally examined her another 30 minutes after that.

An attorney for Green's family, Sanford Rubenstein, said the finding suggested that the hours she sat in the hospital factored in her death.

"The length of time that she spent in the emergency room ... very well may have contributed to her death," he said. "Physical inactivity was obviously a significant contributing factor."

He said that had Green been carefully attended to when she arrived at the emergency room, doctors might have noticed swelling in her legs and taken action.

People known to be at risk from deep vein thrombosis are often given anticoagulation drugs or compression stockings, which can keep clots from forming, and advised not to sit for hours at a time.

The condition, however, is not always easy to detect. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute said about half of the people with deep vein thrombosis have no symptoms at all.

Airlines often advise passengers on very long flights to stroll the aisle, periodically, to prevent blood clots.

The city Health and Hospitals Corp., which owns Kings County Hospital, had no immediate comment Friday.

HHC officials have previously expressed outrage at the way Green was treated. Six employees lost their jobs over the incident, even before it became public.

The agency also immediately reported the death to the state and voluntarily turned over the security records to lawyers already suing the city over alleged patient neglect at the hospital.

Virus blamed for ambulance delays

Video

A winter virus has been blamed for a sharp fall in the performance of the ambulance service in Wales in December.

Only 47.6% of of category A emergencies received a response within the eight-minute target, down nearly 10% on the previous month, new figures show.

It was short of the 65% target set by the assembly government in April.

The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust said a "flu-like virus" had caused a higher number of emergency calls than last year.

It also put increased pressure on A&E units, which caused the handover of patients from ambulance staff to be delayed, and this further affected performance, the trust said.

In Torfaen, 17.9% of emergency responses arrived within the eight-minute target and only three Local Health Boards (LHBs) - Wrexham, Denbighshire and Conwy - reached the 65% target.

Health Minister Edwina Hart wants 65% of ambulances across Wales to reach patients within the target time by March.

She called the released ambulance response times "dreadful" but said that December had been a difficult month.

The board of the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust is to meet in Cwmbran later, and will receive a report showing that performance for January is showing an upward trend.

The trust said it received 300 000 emergency calls in December, up 10% on the previous year.

Ambulances had to deal with an extra 82 incidents each day compared with normal.

'Major challenges'

A trust spokesperson said: "Activity was already up by approximately 16.4% on last year before the holiday period. When the seasonal activity increase was added to this, it gave us a number of major challenges, not least in its effect on accident and emergency departments .

"Due to increased pressures at A&E departments across Wales, the handover of patients from Ambulance staff was delayed, which further impacted on performance.

"We are continuing to work closely with NHS colleagues to see if there are any actions that we have not already taken which might resolve issues around the delays we have been experiencing in a number of areas while waiting to be able to hand patients to the care of hospital staff.

The Welsh Assembly Government said: "We have worked with the Welsh Ambulance Service and hospitals to plan for this period. Three regional winter pressure groups were established with the responsibility for co-coordinating services during this period."

'Stalled investment'

Conservative health spokesman Jonathan Morgan said there was "a whole system failure" in the NHS in Wales.

"We cannot solve this problem by merely shouting orders at the ambulance service," he said.

"And the assembly government cannot expect standards to improve when they are asking the ambulance service to making millions of pounds worth of efficiency savings."

Liberal Democrat Peter Black said: "Much-needed investment in the ambulance service has stalled with the assembly government.

"A bid put into assembly government in January 2008 for £5m to be spent on ambulance fleets has not yet been approved, over a year later. Another bid of £35m submitted in May 2008 is also awaiting approval."

In December, Ms Hart said the ambulance service must "raise its game and work with its staff and partner organisations to improve services for patients" after statistics showed that the service's performance in reaching category A calls had worsened since June.

Memorial service honors Edmonds paramedic Art DeLisle

EDMONDS -- A community memorial service is planned Sunday to honor the life of Edmonds firefighter and paramedic Art DeLisle, who died in a climbing accident in Argentina last month.

DeLisle touched many people's lives throughout his years as a paramedic. The avid outdoorsman was fatally injured by a falling rock while climbing 22,834-foot Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas.

The service is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Edmonds Performing Arts Center, at 410 Fourth Ave. N., following a three-block procession from Edmonds Fire Station 17, at 275 Sixth Ave. N., Edmonds police Sgt. Don Anderson said.

The service is open to the public, and more than 500 people are expected to attend.

No graveside procession will follow the service, Anderson said.

Traffic in downtown Edmonds north of Main Street is expected to be heavy from late morning to about 8 p.m., Anderson said. Parking will be affected as well.

Sixth Avenue N. will be closed from Bell to Glen streets to accommodate police and fire vehicles.