Northmore recounts delayed responses for critical patients
Stephen Northmore, a FDNY EMS rescue medic, recounts a cardiac patient waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance, a patient with three broken limbs waiting 50 minutes, and a child waiting 30 minutes while a fire company was on scene. He says these cases show the system is out of time.
Good afternoon.
My name is Stephen Northmore and I am representing myself.
I have been a member of FDNY EMS for the past 14 years, starting in 2012 as an EMT, then paramedic, hashtag medic, and finally rescue medic.
We are out of time.
I have firsthand account in the last month that a patient waited 40 minutes for an ambulance to be assigned after they had started showing symptoms of a life-threatening cardiac condition.
A crew confided in me the next day that the same previous day as the cardiac patient, a patient who had suffered a serious accident with three of their limbs broken, which if not handled correctly could cause a fatal bleed or nerve damage causing permanent disability, had waited
50 minutes.
For an ambulance to arrive.
A few weeks ago in Brooklyn, I heard a fire company over the radio that had been waiting at the scene of an injured child for 30 minutes, who can compensate and appear very well after injury until they suddenly rapidly deteriorate, be told that there were no ambulances available.
Another crew a few weeks ago confided in me that their patient had died from a manageable bleed while waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance to be dispatched.
I'd heard of another pediatric patient with an obviously and painfully broken arm, again, if not handled correctly, could lead to a life-threatening bleed or permanent disability, had waited an hour for an ambulance to arrive.
That same crew informed me another patient of theirs with an immobilizing broken bone had waited three hours.
hours for an ambulance a couple of weeks before.
A toddler with a critical second-degree burn from boiling liquid spilt on them waiting in their mother's arms for 30 minutes for an ambulance to be dispatched.
This is the testimony of one member out of thousands.