In his first call to 911, Curtis Mitchell sounded calm, explaining to dispatchers that his “entire stomach [was] in pain.”
By the time his longtime girlfriend made a 10th call nearly 30 hours later, she was frantic. He wasn’t breathing. He was cold to the touch…
“I sat up here with him, watching him die,” Ms. Edge said Tuesday, after city officials apologized to her and pledged immediate changes in emergency response after Mr. Mitchell’s death on Feb. 7. “They didn’t do their jobs like they were supposed to…”
Ambulances were dispatched three times on Saturday, Feb. 6, to the couple’s home in the 5100 block of narrow Chaplain Way, but couldn’t get there because of the snow. Paramedics twice asked whether Mr. Mitchell could walk to an intersection, even after he told them that he could not because he was in too much pain.
Emergency vehicles were within blocks of his home three times — once so close Ms. Edge could see the ambulance lights from her porch — but did not make contact with him. They finally reached the home on Sunday morning, Feb. 7, but Mr. Mitchell was already dead.
“We should have gotten there,” Public Safety Director Michael Huss said. “It’s that simple.”
Yes – you should have.
people shouldn’t just be fired for this. They should be put on trial for murder.
I’m inclined to agree with #1.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Especially when they were with in VISUAL DISTANCE from the home. Get the fuck out of the ambulance, and RUN TO THE HOUSE you fucktard EMTs.
Why is it the US postal service and get though rain, snow and all kinds of weather, and visit EVERY HOME in the neighborhood; but if there’s a snow drift in your driveway, the EMTs won’t make it. You’ll get your bills in the mail, but not emergency services.
Ms. Edge should file a criminal law suit on this ambulance company (assuming it was the same one each time.)
I dunno. Something is missing from this story. My BS detector is going off.
The fact that medics were there 3X and could not get to the house tells me that there were some serious obstacles. The way the article is written is makes the EMS sound like they couldn’t be bothered to get out of their truck. I doubt that.
There is no guarantee that EMS can get to any place at any time. Sometimes they can’t.
#4. C’mon, it took 30 hours and they were within sight. Plenty of time to rent a snowmobile, helicopter, maybe even snowshoes.
One of the EMTs should have walked to the house with some equipment to assess how serious the man’s situation was. Then determine an appropriate course of action from there. They shouldn’t have just given up and left.
Why didn’t Curtis and his girlfriend get in a car or taxi and drive to the Hospital?
An obvious victim of the welfare state.
#7 Ya, if it was me I would have ran out to the Ambulance said,” common WTF!” Failing that i would have got into my car and drove him to the hospital. Sitting back and waiting was the wrong option.
At First I was with the emotional response how could they let him die? But now I’m looking at the girlfriend thinking how could YOU let him die? Set fire to car or the House and tell them to follow the smoke! Grab him by the ankles and drag him through the snow to the nearest plowed street. No, I’m not buying just blame the Paramedics,the girlfriends lack of mental independence was another piece of the equation.
Here’s some of the info left out of the story. It started to snow in Pittsburgh Friday night and by the time it ended Saturday afternoon there were 22 inches on the ground and a quarter of the homes had no power.
The city declared a state of emergency and 911 was flooded with calls.
The main roads were snow covered and the neighborhood streets would not be clear for days.
The couple might have got help from their neighbors, half of which were 70+ year old retirees of the steel mill that closed many years ago.
Considering that NH is a snow state I have to say that in the past if we had snow issues we called the town plow trucks to come clear us a path. One thing to keep in mind is that even if you rent a snowmobile you still have to get the patient out… again because we are a prepared town we have a sled for the backboard that allows us to transport over snow but heck it is homemade and wouldn’t be as cool as one purchased for a few grand.
It’s Pittsburgh. The power lawyers have control of the Hummer fleet. EMS could use them. The mayor rode around like Hugo Chavez in a Humvee with the National Guard and then chewed out the local press corps. A very large mess, looking into the abyss.
I’m sure the fact that they live in a predominantly black low-income neighborhood had nothing to do with it.
I live in Pittsburgh and at the same time that this was happening I saw several firemen shoveling steps and a sidewalk to take an elderly neighbor of mine to the hospital or warming center. It did not seem to be an emergency situation, as far as I could tell.
This is terrible! The system is broken something needs to be done about this.
There is nothing worse than a person dying when there is an easy cure, which is the case in most circumstances like this. Someone deserves to lose his job over this.
Under Obama’s health care the ambulance will get them to the hospital in 5 minutes, where they can wait in line for 40 hours.
No, really, how much did you like your boyfriend?
Despite the two feet of snow we had, and the fact that a large number of Pittsburgh streets were not plowed for days, this should never have happened. My father, a VOLUNTEER fireman and Paramedic, was out all night those same days in the same snow and weather saving lives ina rural region with a lot more snow and less accessiblity. EVERY effort should be made to save lives.
Why am I not surprise. These outside EMT services are similar to Blackwater imo. Sure, they’re not that bad but they don’t care that much either.
You get what you pay for, in this case hospital using the cheapest and most likely the worst. Speculation of course cause it could because there’s a good Darwin candidate(s) on that EMT.
People are not planning their fatal illnesses very effectively. All this person needed to do was get sick during good weather. Is that too much to ask?
But why did they cancel the call when they couldn’t reach him? That alone displays a lot of intent.
Some nitwit politician was on TV saying Hazelwood looked great, so the signal got out and the Guard was caught off guard. You try to help them and they are so corrupt they undermine the people trying to help out. Nice photoops for the mayor. The old corrupt gang just waited and pulled the dead out a week or so after the clearing was done. The logic was, it’s cold so they’ll keep awhile. Cyril will send a van over when it’s clear.
Reminds me of something I heard earlier today, where EMTs let someone die, because they couldn’t get within 1/2 mile, due to their fear of getting stuck in snow, on a side street, in Queens. So now the Fire Department will assist EMTs (like they did before there were EMTs).
This is absurd.
They merged 911 to save money, so it’s not redundant. You call and get somebody on the other side of the county. It would of been cheaper to route it through India. You call here and it’s yesterday there and you saved a buck.
The SCOTUS has already ruled that the police have no liability to protect the individual. I would assume that the same would be true with EMTs.
They gave Pittsburgh Police garbled info in the past. They got ambushed. It’s part of a regional planning effort and basic dispatch has been killed and the logistics don’t work. If you call it regional, you can score fed dollars. You can build a tunnel under the river, because it’s regional planning run by an unelected regional government. You can’t vote them out and the ones you vote in are next to useless. It’s shovel ready/dig your own graves style.
They’ve been working on eliminating the office of sheriff and expanding the regional gestapo theories for years. Been busy with legislator trials lately though. The state is planning on charging the bankrupt city for helping with snow removal, so now they are using private contractors without contracts. It’s a state of emergency. Idiots!
RTFA..
You have 2 persons in their 50’s Needing help.
YOU HAVE ACCESS to all city services, and you didnt call a SAND TRUCK/Snow Plow to clear off the street.
They got within 2 blocks of the house.
Enough SNOW to block traffic?? about 30″.
“The third call for an ambulance came nearly five hours later, at 11:17 a.m. Saturday. Mr. Mitchell reported similar abdominal pain, and officials identified “no priority symptoms,” and the call was held because of limited availability, Dr. Roth wrote in his report.
“At this point in time, higher priority calls are being held, there are over 30 calls in the pending queue,” he wrote.
At about 8:15 p.m. Saturday, nine hours later, the call was upgraded to E-1, or higher priority, because Ms. Edge, who had begun making the calls on Mr. Mitchell’s behalf, told call-takers he was short of breath and that they’d been waiting all day.”
ANY of you folks in large cities, Im sorry and pity HOW the city PLOWS STREETS.. “HOW HIGH CAN WE PILE IT” is not a solution to TONS of snow.
And people, that person would have died anyhow even if he got to the hospital. How many times have you waited in ER and see people around bleeding to death, moaning, going nuts, for hours on end.
And Obama wants to throw 8Billion at them for? I hate Sharp hospital in San Diego here FYI Fck them, fck them hard for not even telling patients they are giving them out of network services nor having the clue to begin informing them.
The fact is when the ambulance can’t get through due to snow or other obstruction, one provider should get out of the bus and walk to the scene (if it is safe to do so). Assess the patient and determine the patient’s priority. Call for assistance to get the patient out of the house. Most engine companies have 3 or 4 folks on them. If necessary, you can easily carry someone on a reeves stretcher with four people (one on each corner). The other provider who stayed on the bus can call for a plow. When the plow arrives he can follow the plow to the front door.
To do nothing is inexcusable.