#5796 - 06/22/05 08:54 PM
California dreamin'
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Patrick Murphy
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ATCEMSEA
Registered: 03/09/03
Posts: 44
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One more from the "it could always be worse" Dept. Not too many details given, but interesting... I do not see this happening here, anyone else?
SAN FRANCISCO
Fire Dept. probes ambulance response
1 of 2 ill men not transported died later in hospital
- Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, June 18, 2005
The San Francisco Fire Department is investigating why an
ambulance crew decided in two separate cases on the same
day not to take seriously ill men to the hospital,
including one man who died hours later.
"The bottom line is, I'm concerned about both incidents,''
Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said Friday. "We're working
collaboratively with (state officials), and we'll make the
appropriate action if needed.''
The two-member ambulance crew was first called to an
apartment on Turk Street in the Tenderloin at 4 a.m. April
21 because a man who lived there was suffering from chest
paints consistent with a heart attack, said Dr. John Brown,
who runs an arm of the city Public Health Department that
regulates the Fire Department's emergency services.
An hour later, the same crew -- a paramedic and an
emergency medical technician -- went to a residential hotel
on Sixth Street in the South of Market in response to a
report of a man with severe abdominal pain, Brown said.
In both cases, the crew later reported that the men had
refused transport to the hospital. However, they did not
document the reported refusals at the time, an apparent
violation of city policy, Brown said.
That failure has become especially significant given what
happened to the two men after the crew went off duty.
A second ambulance crew responded to the Turk Street
apartment about 16 hours after the first visit and took
59-year-old Elissa Potter Jr. to St. Francis Medical
Center, where he died April 22, possibly of a heart attack.
No autopsy was performed. His body was ordered cremated
this week because the family could not afford a funeral,
said the medical examiner's chief investigator, Alan
Pringle.
In the Sixth Street case, a second ambulance crew returned
before noon April 21 to find the unidentified man in his
50s suffering stomach pain. He was taken to San Francisco
General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with internal
bleeding.
Authorities have not identified the two members of the
ambulance crew that first saw the men. They were working
that morning at Fire Station No. 1, located at 676 Howard
St. in the South of Market.
City policy requires that two paramedics vouch for a
patient's decision not to be taken to the hospital, and
that they must record that refusal promptly. If there is
any disagreement between the paramedics, they must consult
the hospital.
If there is only one paramedic on an ambulance crew, he or
she must call the hospital to confirm a patient's decision
not to be treated there.
In both the April 21 cases, it appears only one paramedic
was involved in the decision making, authorities said. The
crew reported the two men's refusal to be taken to
hospitals only after they were later picked up by the
second ambulance crews.
City officials said that in the case of the Sixth Street
patient, investigators were reviewing footage from a hotel
security camera taken the morning the first ambulance crew
showed up.
"I believe it validates some of the concerns we raised,''
Hayes-White said. She declined to be more specific.
Glenn Ortiz-Schuldt, San Francisco Fire's Department
emergency services chief, said the state emergency services
authority was conducting an investigation of the paramedic
involved in both incidents. State officials said they could
not comment on pending cases.
The city is the licensing authority for emergency medical
technicians and is investigating the technician involved in
the April 21 cases.
While cautioning that he did not know whether fatigue was a
factor for the first ambulance crew, Brown said he had
heard concerns from paramedics and emergency medical
technicians about becoming exhausted on 24-hour shifts.
While firefighters work similar shifts, emergency ambulance
crews respond to more calls.
Kevin Smith, president of the Black Firefighters
Association, said downtown ambulance crews are especially
burdened.
"They put them on these 24-hour shifts, and they keep them
on it for six or seven or eight years," Smith said. "There
isn't any kind of rotation.''
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#5797 - 06/22/05 11:00 PM
Re: California dreamin'
[Re: Patrick Murphy]
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Corey Ricketson
Member
ATCEMSEA
Registered: 03/05/03
Posts: 379
Loc: Round Rock
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Well, the bay area is doing this on purpose. you see, they are getting a cut from the geezer squeezer research so they are actually inducing cardiac arrest so they get more opportunity to deploy the device.
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