SAN ANTONIO, TX – When an elderly man being helped by paramedics was told he needed to go to the hospital, the man disagreed.

Then, police say, he threatened to pull a gun on the EMTs.

Around midnight Sunday, EMS was called to an apartment complex at the 10000 block of Sahara to help Rodney Ray, 53. After checking Ray out, the paramedics told him his oxygen levels were low, and they said he needed to go to the hospital for further medical assistance.

But according to police, Ray became upset and refused to go to the hospital. While paramedics argued their case, Ray threatened to pull out a pistol.

Police say the man was under the influence at the time of the incident.

So the paramedics left and called police. A SWAT team — with police backup — surrounded the house. When officers determined that Ray was not a threat to himself or others, they left him alone.

But hours later, after he continued to have trouble breathing, Ray called EMS back to his home. He was taken to the hospital without incident.

Meanwhile, officers searched Ray’s apartment. They did not find any weapon inside his home.

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Bismarck, N.D. – A North Dakota nonprofit that violated the state’s open meetings law and used federal disaster planning money for alcohol and other unallowable items could be barred from government contracts unless it makes changes.

The state Health Department, in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, gives the North Dakota EMS Association a Sept. 30 deadline to change its policies. The association represents about 1,800 ambulance and emergency workers.

The Health Department ordered the emergency workers’ group in July to repay more than $124,000 in federal disaster planning money spent on booze, lobbying, bonuses and other questionable expenses.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said the group broke state law in closing a board meeting to talk about an unfavorable audit.

Mark Weber, the association’s president, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

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ATHENS, Tenn. (AP) ‚Äî A man who couldn’t get a ride from officers at the McMinn County Jail is accused of then stealing an emergency medical services vehicle and driving it home.

The Daily Post-Athenian reported 21-year-old Justin Jack is accused of taking the vehicle, ramming a police car, driving through a barbed-wire fence and abandoning the stolen vehicle near his home in a rural area about five miles from Athens.

No one was hurt in the Thursday incident. The vehicle was damaged.

Investigators said Jack was in jail Friday on Tennessee Highway Patrol charges of felony reckless endangerment, driving with a suspended license and leaving the scene of an accident.

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URBANA, IL – A Champaign man who rode around in the back of a Pro Ambulance unnoticed for a few hours Monday has been charged in Champaign County Circuit Court with burglary.

Terrance Jones, 28, of the 1400 block of Aztec Drive was charged with burglary for entering the ambulance with the intent to steal.

Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah Carlson said Jones got in the ambulance about 8:30 a.m. Monday while the emergency medical technicians staffing it were inside Farm and Fleet on North Cunningham Avenue in Urbana. A video from the store showed him getting in.

Jones apparently remained inside the ambulance for the next few hours while the technicians ran errands. Once the ambulance got back to the Urbana Fire Department on South Vine Street, Jones got out and ran. He was caught about 1 p.m. behind the Champaign County Courthouse, Carlson said.

Jones had taken a breathing mash and latex gloves. Carlson said officers reported Jones was intoxicated and smelled of cannabis.

Judge Richard Klaus set his bond at $2,500 and ordered him to be back in court with a lawyer Sept. 9.

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Quit in disgust due to management and working conditions

PARAMEDICS were ready to break into a Mackay home to treat a suspected heart attack victim when they learned the emergency was actually in Brisbane.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – Eric Fleissig who later quit the Queensland Ambulance Service in disgust at its management and working conditions, said he was met by a startled and confused person when he attended a Code 1 emergency call.

He said he went to an address provided by ambulance dispatchers where the resident told him he knew nothing about an emergency.

The paramedics queried the communication centre, which then realised that the street name was correct but the emergency was in the Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove and not the Mackay suburb of Andergrove.

“It happens all the time,” Mr Fleissig said.

Paramedics say the QAS hasn’t done enough to make sure the best maps and direction-finding equipment are available, or to train communications staff who know their areas.

QAS Commissioner David Melville said dispatch systems were not perfect but Queenslanders were given the best possible service regardless of where they lived.

“I’d like to think we will get it perfect, but I can’t give you a 100¬†per cent guarantee on it,” he said. “We try to give the best possible service no matter where people are.”

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BRYAN, TX – A Bryan Fire Department ambulance in service was stolen Sunday morning from an area hospital and later ditched in a neighboring county. The suspect in the theft has been arrested.

Lawrence Eugene Reyes Jr. of Richards was taken into custody at 8:20 a.m. Sunday, more than two-and-a-half hours after he allegedly took an ambulance from St. Joseph Regional Health Center. According to Bryan Police, Reyes was found along OSR and Highway 6 wet, dirty and scratched up.

In addition to a public intoxication charge, multiple charges of theft of a firearm and other charges, Reyes faces a first degree felony charge of theft of property of more than $200,000.

According to authorities, at 5:12 a.m. Sunday, the ambulance was in the middle of a stop at St. Joseph. Two medics were on that crew.

Both had delivered a patient to the emergency room, and as one stayed with the patient, Bryan Fire Chief Mike Donoho says the other crew member came out to begin clean-up in the patient portion of the vehicle. That’s when Reyes allegedly got behind the wheel and drove off.

Authorities began pursuing the ambulance, though they kept their distance because, according to police, the circumstances did not meet the department’s close pursuit policy.

Police followed it to Robertson County, where at Old Hearne Road at 5:40 a.m., Reyes allegedly ditched it and ran.

The ambulance, Medic 2, was not damaged and nothing was stolen.

An investigation is underway on the police end, and Donoho says one on his department’s end will be conducted.

The current policy, according to the chief, is for all ambulances to be turned off when parked at the hospital, in part due to fumes from the vehicle that could make their way into the emergency room area. Donoho and the department will look into the handling of ambulance keys during stops and update the policy if necessary.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Metro EMS tech had a drug commonly used for pain or drug addiction in her system when she was driving an ambulance involved in a fatal crash.

On Thursday, prosecutors submitted 518 pages of information to the court file, including a Kentucky State Police lab report showing Brewer had methadone in her system at the time of the April 2008 crash.

Another report also questions how she was able to get methadone.On Monday, Brewer pled not guilty to seven charges against her, including murder and driving under the influence of intoxicants.   Brewer, an EMT, was driving a Metro EMS ambulance and stopped to pick up 54-year-old Vickie Whobrey to take her to the hospital for a nosebleed.

Whobrey’s daughter, Maggie, said Brewer spoke to her and her family.¬† “She kept on apologizing for being sick,”¬† Whobrey said.¬† “She says she feels doped up from the medication. “A short time later, the ambulance crashed and Vickie Whobrey died of injuries from the wreck.¬† According to court records obtained exclusively by WLKY News, a blood test performed by the Kentucky State Police lab found .009 milligrams of methadone in Brewer’s system.

According to a report prepared by a University of Louisville doctor for prosecutors, that concentration of methadone “may or may not cause impairment” when driving.¬† The doctor also noted, “Brewer has not supplied information regarding a legitimate methadone prescription.”¬† However, a search of Brewer’s prescription drug history from May 2008 to May 2009 found the EMT, who was driving an ambulance for 11 months of that time, filled 19 new prescriptions at 11 pharmacies from 10 different providers.¬† Four of them were filled after the fatal crash.¬† The report also indicates Brewer had four active prescriptions at the time of the wreck — two pain medicines and two anti-anxiety pills.

However, as WLKY first reported a week ago, a urine test for Brewer was not performed the night of the crash. Documents from University Hospital indicate “patient not in room” and the urinalysis canceled. According to the report for prosecutors, “testing of urine may have determined whether or not the prescribed medications were also present in the system.” But because that testing wasn’t done, it’s unclear if Brewer had medications other than methadone in her system. However, the report from the ambulance crew that responded to Brewer’s crash described her as “patient crying and would fall asleep.”

In 2005, about nine months before Metro EMS hired Brewer, she was charged with reckless driving and possession of a controlled substance. The police report said that controlled substance was 6¬? methadone pills. Brewer pled guilty to the reckless driving charge, while the possession of a controlled substance charge was dropped. Court records also show Metro EMS supervisors knew about that incident and warned her to be careful driving, because if Brewer lost her driver’s license, the letter said, she would also lose her job.

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LOUISVILLE, KY – A former ambulance driver who was involved in a crash that killed a passenger in April 2008 pleaded not guilty Monday to multiple charges, including murder, a spokesman for the Jefferson County commonwealth’s attorney’s office said.

Tammy Renee Brewer also was charged with assault, driving under the influence, wanton endangerment and criminal mischief in the death of 54-year-old Vickie Whobrey.

Brewer was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury Thursday.

She allegedly was driving an ambulance while under the influence of drugs when she swerved off Rockford Lane and hit a utility pole and rolled through two ditches while Whobrey was in the back. The ambulance came to rest in a yard. Brewer told investigators she swerved to avoid a pedestrian who had darted in front of the ambulance.

Brewer had also been due to appear in court Friday after she was cited in March of this year for not having proof of insurance after an noninjury accident on Interstate 65 in which it was determined she was at fault.

When she failed to show up for a hearing to determine whether she had paid a $1,000 fine and court costs, a bench warrant was issued for her arrest, but the warrant was recalled after Brewer showed up for her arraignment in the April 2008 incident Monday, said Bill Patteson, a spokesman for the Jefferson County attorney’s office.

Patteson said Brewer had been sentenced to 90 days in jail in June because of the March incident, but she was conditionally discharged and did not spend any time in jail.

In January 2008, just months before the ambulance crash, Brewer was caught speeding in a school zone near Bates Elementary on Bardstown Road. She was charged with going 23 mph over the limit, no proof of insurance and an expired license plate, according to arrest records.

And in September 2006, Brewer was charged with having expired insurance and an expired license plate after she was involved in an accident in the 5800 block of Bardstown Road.

Brewer was driving personal vehicles in those incidents.

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LOUISVILLE, KY – A grand jury has indicted an EMS driver for murder in a crash that killed a patient in an ambulance.

Tammy Brewer was driving the ambulance in April of 2008, when it crashed at the corner of Rockford and Van Hoose.¬† Vicky Whobrey, 57, was a patient in the ambulance. She’d had a nosebleed. Whobrey died in the crash.

Witnesses say the ambulance was swerving on the road before the crash and an internal investigation revealed another EMS worker observed Brewer as loopy and said she’d been taking narcotics.

The grand jury indicted Brewer Thursday on murder, assault and 5 other counts.

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MCALESTER, OK – At least two claims have been filed against the city as a result of a February wreck in which a truck hit a city ambulance.

Geina Motley and Lowell Hendershott each seek unspecified damages of more than $10,000 for their injuries.

Hendershott was riding in the ambulance when it was hit by a semi-truck while crossing an intersection against a red light. The collision knocked the ambulance into Motley’s car, which was stopped for a light at the intersection of Carl Albert Parkway and Strong Boulevard.

The driver of the ambulance, Rodney Leamy, was later reprimanded for not slowing enough as he entered the intersection. Even though the ambulance’s lights and siren were on, Leamy’s failure to yield from the stoplight was cited as the only unsafe and/or unlawful contributing factor of the wreck, according to an accident report by the McAlester Police Department.

The report and Hendershott’s claim were obtained this week by the McAlester News-Capital after Freedom Of Information Act requests were filed with the city and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.

Hendershott’s claim was filed with the city on Feb. 12, seven days after the wreck. Motley’s lawsuit was filed July 27 in Pittsburg County District Court. It also seeks damages from the driver of the semi-truck, Robin Creel, of Calera, the truck’s carrier, C.L. Trucking of Tecumseh, and its insurer.

Also released this week was a letter of reprimand to Leamy. In the letter, Fire Chief Harold Stewart cites the ambulance driver for not slowing enough to avoid the accident, in violation of fire department rules and regulations.

Leamy and fellow firefighter Jeremy Farris were both treated and released for injuries. Farris had been in the back of the ambulance with Hendershott at the time of the wreck.

“While you slowed, observed traffic in one or more directions, had your emergency lights and siren on, and used the horn, the accident still occurred, which one could conclude that you did not slow the vehicle enough to avoid an accident from happening,” Stewart’s letter states.

The letter of reprimand was to be added to Leamy’s permanent file for three years.

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SAINT PAUL, MN – Reports released Monday say the St. Paul ambulance crew that ran over a 79-year-old woman on June 20 did not follow recommended department guidelines.

The reports indicated people on the scene all heard the sound of the ambulance alarm beeping as it slowly backed down an alley in the 1600 block of James Avenue before running over and killing Margaret Adele Kuehn.

Police say driver Thomas Tommio Murakami, 57, was going just one or two miles per hour and no one was behind the ambulance guiding down the narrow alley—a practice recommended in department policy.

After a check of the vehicle, the Minnesota State Patrol says there were no mechanical problems with the rig.

Once Kuehn was hit, the reports describe a heroic effort to try and safe her. Several firefighters actually lifted the back end of the ambulance off the ground to free Kuehn.

The report says Kuehn had recently started wearing hearing aids and investigators believe she was not wearing them when the accident happened.

The city isn’t commenting about the reports because of a possible lawsuit.

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SAN JOSE, CA – Though Louis Del Barba can’t speak, his daughters say he gets a sparkle in his eyes when they tell him he may be going home soon.

The 86-year-old lifelong Oakley resident has spent the past two years in a San Leandro hospital room where he can only mouth words to express himself. He breathes with help from a respirator ever since a horrific crash with an ambulance in April 2007 left him paralyzed.

The family sued American Medical Response Corp., or AMR, accusing the company of not properly training the ambulance driver involved in the accident. Last September, an Alameda County Superior Court jury awarded $23.9 million to pay for past and future medical expenses, along with $300,000 to modify Del Barba’s house to accommodate his condition.

Lifting his spirits are the thoughts of going home to his bichon frise, Tazzy, viewing an 85-year-old grape vineyard from inside his circa-1900 farmhouse and seeing his five grandchildren, said Vicki Del Barba-Mann, of Knightsen. The prospect of his return home also lifts the spirits of his daughters and relatives, who have shed many tears through the ordeal, she said.

However, the family fears that delays resolving AMR’s appeal may prevent Del Barba from ever going home again.

The last time Del Barba left his Oakley house was the morning of April 16, 2007. As he had done many times before, he drove down Rose Avenue in his red 2005 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, stopped at a stop sign on Main Street, and made a left turn onto the road to meet friends in Antioch.Meanwhile, an AMR ambulance late to a response in Brentwood was driving 60 to 70 mph with lights flashing and sirens blaring through downtown Oakley, according to court testimony. While Del Barba was turning onto Main Street, he was struck by the five-ton ambulance.

The impact crushed the fronts of both vehicles. It also caused extensive damage to Del Barba’s spinal cord, internal bleeding, and broke his ribs, arm, pelvis and neck. He was taken by helicopter to Walnut Creek’s John Muir Medical Center, where doctors thought he wouldn’t survive the night, Del Barba-Mann said.

Del Barba survived but was left with no control of his limbs other than his left arm. He now requires around-the-clock attention, and his daughters say he has repeated bed sores and many lung infections that require antibiotics.

“It’s horrid what he’s going through. It’s absolutely horrid,” Del Barba-Mann said while fighting back tears.

Added daughter Juli Del Barba-Favalora of Oakley: “To be trapped in that, and just staring at the wall and trapped in that bed, it’s torture.”

Terry O’Reilly, an attorney representing the Del Barba family, said AMR negligently trained the driver, and he was driving too fast to a call for which other emergency vehicles were already responding. O’Reilly speculates the reason the driver was going so quickly was to ensure that AMR would be compensated for responding.

The AMR driver not only was driving “so fast it was almost impossible for Del Barba to react” but should have swerved to the back of the vehicle to minimize the impact, O’Reilly said last week.

“These drivers are not trained in emergency maneuvers,” he said, calling the “abysmal” training of AMR and other ambulance companies “frightening.”

All ambulance drivers across the country are required to pass a written exam, while some private ambulance companies — including AMR — require some behind-the-wheel training for Code 3 driving.

AMR attorneys countered that Del Barba’s negligence caused the accident as he should have seen the ambulance’s flashing lights, heard its sirens and avoided the collision, according to court records. Emergency vehicles are supposed to travel only 10 to 15 mph over the speed limit and drive responsibly, even when responding to an emergency, O’Reilly said.

If the AMR driver followed that restriction on the 35-mph road, Del Barba could have reacted more quickly, O’Reilly said.

AMR declined to comment on the case or its driver-training methods because “it is a legal matter,” public affairs manager Doug Moore said.

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When Nicola Ortner’s husband collapsed from an apparent heart attack in their North Olmsted home on Father’s Day, she called 9-1-1. The dispatcher answered immediately, sent help to the street address and stayed on the line to give Ortner CPR instructions.

But the street the ambulance was dispatched to was 20 miles from Ortner, who had one hand on the phone while using the other hand in a frantic struggle to revive her husband. The ambulance was in Independence.

By the time the dispatcher learned of the error, “I was in a panic,” Ortner recalls.

Her husband had stopped breathing.

Outside their home, the couple’s 16-year-old daughter was in tears as she waited in the driveway for the van the dispatcher insisted was on their street – MacKenzie Drive.

“I said, ‘MacKenzie Drive? It’s MacKenzie Road, North Olmsted,’ ” Ortner remembers.

“The 9-1-1 operator said, ‘North Olmsted?’ It didn’t dawn on me she didn’t know.”

The dispatcher then called North Olmsted police. Fire-rescue paramedics arrived within three minutes – but almost 20 agonizing minutes after the call to 9-1-1.

City and county officials maintain it has been fixed. They said an unusual combination of circumstances led to the error – and it wasn’t caught because of a 9-1-1 system flaw that North Olmsted Safety Director Lisa Thomas called “so big I could drive a truck through it.”

Murray Withrow, director of the Cuyahoga Emergency Communication System, which coordinates 9-1-1 calls in the county, said the gap was closed by safeguards ordered after the incident. All calls are now verified by community and ZIP code, he said.

When Nicola Ortner dialed 9-1-1, her call went to the dispatcher for Independence – “who did answer, ‘9-1-1 Independence,’ ” Ortner says. “But I didn’t think that much of it because everything is centralized. I thought it was the first open line. It didn’t dawn on me she didn’t know I was in North Olmsted. It’s a shock to find your call doesn’t go where you think.”

Officials discovered her call was misrouted mainly because of the way the Ortners’ address was entered in a computer database when the family changed their phone service a year before.

They listed their street name as “MacKenzie,” the same spelling as on a street sign near their home. But it is not the spelling listed in the county’s master street guide used by EMS. That spelling is McKenzie. Thomas, in fact, has found four different recorded spellings for the North Olmsted road.

The spelling in the database automatically directed the Ortner call to Independence, a city that has a street spelled the way the Ortners listed theirs. To add to the problem, the street numbers on the Independence drive largely match those on the North Olmsted road.

Further complicating the situation was the Ortners’ change to a bundled phone and cable TV package, with digital phone service using VOIP, or voice over Internet protocol.

Withrow said the misrouting of the call would not have happened before the family’s switch. “It’s a little confusing because the technology has developed so quickly,” he said.

Withrow said his agency has toughened requirements for VOIP service providers, so that dispatchers will now see displays of street address, city and ZIP code for all 9-1-1 calls.

Similar problems are unlikely to happen with callers using cell phones, which now account for 70 percent of 9-1-1 calls, Withrow said. The 9-1-1 service sends a signal to the cell phone that automatically returns the caller’s location.

Thomas said North Olmsted police have since tested the homes of the Ortners’ neighbors and found one home phone that directed a 9-1-1 call to Independence.

The routing was corrected, she said, and the new verification standards should ensure that what happened to the Ortners will not be repeated.

“It’s going to make a difference to somebody,” Nicola Ortner says. “It might be Steve’s legacy that he saved a life down the road. You want to know the ironic part? He was a computer engineer. He probably would have fixed it in no time at all.”

Steve Ortner, 56, would be pronounced dead on arrival at St. John West Shore Hospital.

“I don’t know if it would have made any difference if they got here in time,” Nicola Ortner says, “but there’s something wrong with the system. There’s a monumental screw-up somewhere. Something needs to be fixed.”

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