Feb. 01--The ordeal in which a nearby paramedic unit was passed over for another located 10 miles away to assist a seizing 3-year-old girl is forcing Newport Township officials to reconsider their new emergency dispatch protocol.
A change in the township's first-responder paramedic unit from Nanticoke to one stationed in Shickshinny meant that when Carleigh Jo Hufford suffered a seizure at a daycare center Jan. 25, dispatchers passed over a paramedic unit in Nanticoke -- just 1 1/2 miles away.
The president of the Newport Township Fireman's Community Ambulance said Wednesday that the unit in Shickshinny would offer better service.
But now Newport Township Commissioner President Paul Czapracki, who signed the change order last month, said he wants to see the emergency team in Nanticoke return as first responder, and it could come as early as Monday at the township's regular meeting.
Czapracki said the change was intended to be temporary anyway while the township's commissioners investigated complaints from its own emergency service personnel, which do not include paramedics, about their counterparts in Nanticoke. He refused to explain the complaints.
Czapracki said he and other commissioners were meeting with emergency personnel in Nanticoke and Newport Township prior to the meeting to hear both sides.
"If you got a little static between ambulances, you have to iron things out," Czapracki said.
State Rep. Gerald Mullery, D-Newport Township, said he is concerned with the ambulances based in the flood-prone Shickshinny as well as the fact there is only one direct route from the station there to the township. A downed tree or car accident could "triple" response times, he said. He also noted that a nursing home and an elementary school in the township sit nearly on the border with Nanticoke, one of the furthest points from the Shickshinny station.
Returning Nanticoke's paramedic unit to the top spot on the list is "certainly on the table," Commissioner Mike Roke said. He encouraged residents to speak their mind on the issue.
"If anybody has any suggestions, they're more than welcome to contact us or come to our meetings and let us know," Roke said. "The more input that we have, the better of an informed decision we can make."
570-821-2110, @cvpetercameron
Copyright 2013 - The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
