The family of a man who suffered a heart attack earlier this week wants answers as to why the ambulance carrying him to a Cleveland hospital broke down, forcing paramedics to wait 10 minutes for a replacement vehicle to arrive. Sunday's incident illustrates concerns with aging equipment that members of Cleveland Emergency Medical Services must deal with, WOIO-TV reports.
"This is on the mayor, and this is on the safety director," the man's wife, whose name was asked to be withheld, told the TV station. "These are the people that are supposed to be taking care of our first responders, making sure they have the tools to do what they need to do."
Currently, 58 percent of Cleveland's ambulances are in poor condition, according to city records obtained by WOIO. Medic 24, the vehicle dispatched Sunday when a call came in concerning a man suffering a heart attack, falls into that poor category. The city bought the ambulance in 2012, and it has logged more than 260,000 miles.
Even before Medic 24 was sent out, the relatives of the man having the attack had trouble getting through the to emergency dispatchers. At the time of the call, the city's 9-1-1 system was overloaded, and they were put on hold.
Once the call went through, paramedics drove Medic 24 to pick up the man. But when the ambulance wouldn't start after he was loaded in, first responders continued treating him in the back of the vehicle while another vehicle rushed to the scene, WOIO reports.
"If it wasn’t for them, my husband wouldn’t be alive," the man's wife said.
So far, city mechanics have been unable to determine why the ambulance broke down, and driver error hasn't been ruled out, EMS Commissioner Nicole Carlton said. Despite Sunday's unfortunate incident, Carlton said the city continues to take steps to make sure its first responders have what they need to do their jobs, such as recently buying nine new ambulances last year.
"We take care of the public very well. We have exceptional training," she told WOIO.
