LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A witness has come forward after a fatal ambulance accident in Shively.Watch The StoryMetro EMS administrators are conducting their own internal investigation, as is the Shively Police Department, but the witness gave an entirely different account of that wreck than the EMT who was driving the ambulance when it crashed.

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Woman dies on the way to the hospital after ambulance crashes

Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) РVickie Whobrey died early last Thursday morning when the ambulance carrying her to the hospital skidded off the road and crashed.  She was going to the hospital for a nosebleed and died minutes later of blunt force trauma.  Now her family says authorities aren’t telling the truth about how the crash happened.

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‚ÄúIt all started over a nosebleed,‚Äù says Maggie Whobrey, Vickie‚Äôs daughter.¬† ‚ÄúWhen the [ambulance driver] got there… she apologized to me, my mother and my daughter for being sick.‚Äù

Vicky Whobrey’s daughter says when she put her mother in an ambulance Wednesday night, the metro driver admitted to having a cold.  They say the driver may have been on cold medicine.

‚ÄúMy theory on how it happened… is she fell asleep,‚Äù says Whobrey.

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Two Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services commanders and four instructors were punished Friday in connection with accusations of sexual harassment stemming from a November training session.

During pretraining exercises, an EMS commander dropped her pants and mooned cadets, and other instructors used vulgarity and racial slurs, an EMS official said Friday.

The two commanders involved in the incident have been put on probation, removed from the training academy and given temporary suspensions, said Ernesto Rodriguez, acting director of Austin-Travis County EMS. The four instructors who were involved in the exercise were reprimanded, he said. Two volunteer trainers who were at the exercise will be replaced during training by EMS staff.

EMS released a report on the incident Friday written by an outside investigator.

Rodriguez called the behavior of the staff members who were disciplined “completely unacceptable.”

“I will not tolerate this,” he said.

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When the emergency call went out Wednesday on a fatal accident off Interstate 90 near Brandon, Rural/Metro Ambulance was dispatched.

It was, in fact, their service area, but one emergency responder asked Metro Communications whether MED-Star Paramedic Ambulance out of Brandon should have been called instead.

While some still are getting used to the fact that there’s another service in the area now, it seems MED-Star is handling its new load of calls.Last year, Rural/Metro responded to fewer than 200 calls. Deb Berreth, assistant director of Metro Communications, said MED-Star has been dispatched to 18 calls since receiving its license from the city of Brandon on Dec. 17.

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A man from Turner pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of manslaughter and drunk driving. Christopher Boutin is accused of causing the July crash that killed a paramedic working in an ambulance.

According to police, Boutin was drunk when he crashed into the ambulance. They say the ambulance had its emergency lights on.

The accident killed 46-year-old Allan Parsons of Wilton.

Boutin and the ambulance driver were both seriously injured in the crash.

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A man accused of causing an estimated $82,500 worth of damages when he smashed into an oncoming ambulance after failing to yield now faces a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the city of El Dorado.
Justin Patrick Lewis, 27, was named a defendant in the recent negligence suit filed by North Little Rock attorney, J. Chris Bradley, in Union County Circuit Court. Lewis plowed his Ford pickup into the city-owned ambulance on July 20, causing the ambulance to topple over and damage a nearby motor home, according to a police accident report.
City employee, Nina L. McGaugh, an emergency medical technician who had activated the ambulance’s emergency lights and siren before the accident occurred, was responding to a call at the old Warner Brown Hospital.

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Wednesday night, the Rochester City Council unanimously voted to override Mayor Bob Duffy‚Äôs veto, allowing Rural Metro to remain the city’s ambulance provider.In November, the City Council defied the mayor and awarded the contract to Rural Metro. The mayor‚Äôs administration said it was the first time in two decades that the Council went with a company other than the one recommended by the mayor.

Earlier this year, a panel appointed by Duffy recommended Monroe Ambulance, citing that it is locally owned, female-owned, has better technology, and promised more vehicles.

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Two Manatee County emergency workers have been hospitalized with neck and back injuries after their ambulance overturned driving to an emergency call north of Palmetto.

At 2:47 p.m., at the merger of U.S. 41 and U.S. Business 41, just south of U.S. 19, the ambulance overturned on its driver’s side, after a pickup did not get out of the way, according to Manatee Public Safety Capt. Larry Leinhauser.

A paramedic and EMT were driving with lights and sirens on in a county ambulance, to a respiratory medical emergency call in Palmetto Point, when the accident occurred, Leinhauser said.

Witnesses said the pickup failed to yield to the ambulance. In order to avoid a collision, the ambulance swerved right, hitting soft sand, and tipped over, according to Leinhauser.

The male paramedic and female EMT were both taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital with neck and back injuries. The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the accident.

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An ambulance crash that killed a passenger and seriously injured an emergency medical technician last week spotlights two major concerns in many serious ambulance crashes: questionable driving and hazardous patient compartments.

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The hospital-bound ambulance slid off a snowy highway and rolled over Wednesday, killing Mary Catanzarite, 80, of Massena, N.Y. EMT Michael Guthrie, 39, of Massena, N.Y., was seriously injured.

Police say speed and slippery roads were factors in the crash.

The driver, who was wearing a seat belt, was not hurt. Catanzarite and Guthrie were not belted, according to Vermont State Police Trooper Philip Wagner.

Local and national experts say ambulance services can take steps to improve driving, but making the ambulances safer for patients and EMTs is more of a challenge.

Dan Manz, head of emergency medical services at the Vermont Department of Health, said ambulance workers now can administer many lifesaving procedures at the scene, cutting down on the need to speed to a hospital.

“Today, in 2007, given the capabilities of every emergency medical service in Vermont, the idea of ‘let’s apply the lead foot to save this person’s life,’ I don’t think is necessary,” Manz said.

Jim Finger president of the Vermont Ambulance Association and chief executive administrator of the Regional Ambulance Service in Rutland, said drivers in his service are now required to stop at red lights. They also travel with a computerized system that warns them if they’re speeding to or stopping too fast.

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The widower and children of a woman who jumped to her death from a moving ambulance on Interstate 25 has filed a lawsuit accusing the ambulance company of negligence.Mellissa Watkins, 36, of Aurora, died July 8. A crew from Action Care Ambulance Inc. was transporting Watkins from a hospital in Parker to a hospital in Louisville when she jumped, Greenwood Village police have said.

No cars struck her, but she died later at a hospital in Englewood.

Bill Wallace, vice president of Action Care, declined to comment Friday, citing the pending litigation.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court said Action Care had received hospital records indicating Watkins had attempted suicide in the past 24 hours and had a history of suicide attempts.

The lawsuit also said shoulder harnesses were not used to restrain Watkins, and the rear door of the ambulance was unlocked, unlike other ambulances that Action Care used that had automatically locking back doors.

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A woman being taken by ambulance to a hospital Saturday told investigators she was fading in and out of consciousness and when she awoke felt a paramedic rubbing her genitals, according to a court affidavit filed Tuesday.

Lannie Haszard, 61, who worked for American Medical Response, was arraigned Tuesday on two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. The charges relate to inappropriate sexual contact with a person who was physically helpless, court records show.

Haszard admitted to Portland Detective Rich Rumble that he had been alone with the woman in the back of the ambulance and touched her inappropriately, the affidavit says.

After his police interview, he wrote an apology:

“I am very sorry I did this to you. . . . Please accept my deepest apologies for my actions during our contact. . . . I will attempt to seek some help so I do not ever do anything like this again.”

A grand jury is expected to hear the case in the next week. Haszard, held on $500,000 bail, will be back in court Dec. 19.

Haszard had worked for AMR ambulance since the early 1990s. Once the complaint was made Saturday, he was placed on administrative leave, and upon his arrest Monday, no longer works for the company, said Lucie Drum, AMR spokeswoman.

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A 30-year-old Turner man has been indicted on charges of manslaughter and drunken driving arising from an early morning crash last summer in Turner that killed a paramedic while he was tending a patient en route to the hospital.Christopher Boutin is accused of crashing his pickup truck into an ambulance on Route 4, killing 46-year-old Allan Parsons of Wilton. The ambulance driver and Boutin were seriously injured.

Investigators said Boutin was drunk at the time of the July 5 crash and failed to yield to the ambulance, which had its emergency lights on.

The indictment handed up Thursday said Boutin’s blood-alcohol level was more than 0.15, which is nearly twice the legal limit for drunken driving.

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Funeral arrangements have been set for a Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedic killed over the weekend in a traffic accident.

A viewing for Julio Alvarado Jr. is scheduled today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Gonzalez Funeral Home, 660 S. Zang Blvd. in north Oak Cliff. A rosary will follow at 7 p.m. at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 231 N. Marsalis Ave. The funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the church, with burial to follow at Laurel Land Memorial Park, 6000 South R.L. Thornton Freeway.

All of the services are open to the public.

Mr. Alvarado, 32, was killed early Saturday morning when a man suspected of drunken driving sped through a red light and hit his Honda Accord, police said. The driver of the other vehicle, Derone Jones, was charged with intoxication manslaughter with a motor vehicle, police said.

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An emergency room doctor said Wednesday that a government panel’s change in when a life-saving procedure can be used could put patients at risk.

“I don’t think that change is of benefit to the people of El Paso County,” said Hal Watz, who works for Penrose-St. Francis Health Services.

“It sounds like we’re looking out after the community,” he said, but instead the change means delaying a lifesaving measure.

Watz’s comments came at a meeting of the Emergency Services Agency, which oversees the American Medical Response ambulance contract.

On Sept. 5, the board, chaired by El Paso County Commissioner Sallie Clark, held a closed session and afterward asked AMR to change how it uses rapid sequence intubation for 120 days, pending study. Commonly called RSI, the procedure paralyzes so a paramedic can insert a breathing tube.

The ESA board said it wanted AMR to perform the procedure only when they’re on the phone with a doctor. Before that, AMR paramedics used RSI under standing orders.

Board member Marilyn Gifford, Memorial Health System’s emergency chief, triggered discussion of RSI last month, pointing to a July incident in which AMR paramedics used RSI in a way she didn’t approve of.

A state investigation cleared the paramedics, finding no grounds for discipline.

Jack Sharon, a Penrose doctor and an ESA board member, agreed with Watz.

“When somebody needs an airway, it’s the first thing you address,” Sharon said. “If you’re calling in for an RSI, that patient needs an RSI. All we’ve done is delayed the RSI.”

Sharon said a panel of emergency medicine experts with the El Paso County Medical Society last week expressed concern the moratorium was imposed without consultation with the medical community.

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