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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Man With Chest Pains Stops At Fire Station, No One To Help

A man stopped at Station 7 in Pittsville with chest pains. They tried diligently to get someone to come out and help him but there's no one there.

For the past 15 minutes 911 has been scrambling to fine someone, any one, to come help assist this man and finally they have called in Station 6 to help assist. They are currently on their way.

I thought Station 7 had a full time paramedic on staff?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

sleeping or planning for their next BBQ

Anonymous said...

This is why the VERY FIRST thing you do when you have chest pains is CALL 911. Don't call your wife, your uncle Sal, go riding around, call 911 FIRST.

Even if you're going to drive to the fire station then they can already be en route. Driving yourself is a bad idea, what if you go into arrest and veer into oncoming traffic and kill someone else along with yourself?

As far as full time paramedic, it is shared with Station 8 Pittsville, may have been stationed there. Or, most likely they were already on another call. This is why that 4 or 5 minute in advance phone call would have helped.

By the way, even though I'm sure it seemed like 15 minutes, the standard alert time is 90 seconds I believe, and they go to 3 alerts before going to next station, so should have been about 6 minutes. Still a long time, but again, if person had called before left house...

Anonymous said...

pittsville and parsonsburg share a full time paramedic. i seriously doubt that they had been waiting 15 min for that....911 would have toned out the alarm, they do have several emt's which would have been able to either transport or begin triage until the paramedic arrived....Please try to include a full story when you post things.

JoeAlbero said...

anonymous 8:33, & others,

We did provide the full story. Keep in mind, no one was at Station 7 to answer a phone call from ANY source of media.

Secondly, the man, (while experiencing chest pains) was trying to get help and several people listened to their scanners as everyone scrambled to get someone to help this man.

Look, we know Station 7 is an excellent group of VOLUNTEERS. Salisbury News is NOT blaming anyone. We simply put out the truth of what is going on and believe me, you cannot FIX something you are not aware of and or that the public is aware of.

Get used to this kind of information hitting the Internet in real time because that is what we do. Don't shoot the messanger.

And believe me, IF this had happened at a staffed Fire Department we would have blasted that Station. Now, keep in mind, we have never heard of such a thing.

All that being said, we did provide the "full story" and even ASKED if there's a full time paramedic there.

In closing, let's just HOPE that this man makes it and survives because THAT is the most important thing here.

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of fire companies with no one there.You are supposed to call 911.

Anonymous said...

As many have said, going to a station is very risky in an area dominated by all volunteer stations. In Pocomoke or Crisfield, if you went to the firehouse there would be no one there, the paid EMS station is across town. If they are on a call and no backup crew is there, you're out of luck. Find a way to call 911 no matter what, and help will get to you as soon as possible.

During the day, most volunteers have day jobs and are not available. Paid EMS crews may already be on a call. Most stations get about five minutes or so to respond before a second station is alerted. That second station is going to be farther away and will take 5-10 minutes at the least to get there.

That's assuming they call the next closest station. In one local county, they may send a farther away department to the call even if it means a 5-15 minute delay over calling from a neighboring county. Try making sense of that one.

Anonymous said...

you never know where in the firehouse they could be either. they could be napping. they could be eating/cooking. they could be watching tv (noise drowning out knocks). they could be in the bathroom/showering. they listen to their scanners and the siren. call 911

Anonymous said...

Everybody is blaming the man with the chest pains.

Is it just possible he was on his way somewhere when the chest pains hit and he did not have a cell phone with him, so he did what many did in the old days, which is to stop at a police or fire station?

Anonymous said...

OK..#1 He stopped at the Station 7--Was he alone?? Doesnt seem like he was because the word THEY was used.
Answer--Drive to PRMC instead of waiting..Its quicker to drive to PRMC than wait for an ambo crew

#2 You must have a phone call 911 and tell them if you cant get a crew your driving towards PRMC and IF you can find an ambo crew to meet you half way from another fire co. then we will pull over..IF not cont. to PRMC

Come on people use your head

Anonymous said...

9:05, You must live near the Dorchester/Wicomico line. If a Dorchester County ambulance isn't available out of Eldorado, they will call Hurlock or another Dorchester County ambo instead of just calling Sharptown (Wicomico County), which is closer to many houses in the area than Eldorado in the first place! Dorchester County cares more about getting the money from the transport than they do about our lives.

Anonymous said...

I heard this call. It was toned out and there was suppose to be a paramedic AT station 7. Why were they not there? It's common for the paramedic on duty at this station to go home and sleep in their own bed. WHY? They are getting paid to be at the firehouse not home in bed collecting paycheck.
The excuse that they might have been somewhere else and not hear the person is BS. They have speakers in the firehouse and if they were actually there they should have heard it. After all that is what they are being paid for. So station 7 why are your paramedic not staying at the firehouse when they are on duty huh?