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Jan 31, 2008 11:00 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Dire Situation With Phila. Medics
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
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An official report confirmed the Philadelphia Fire Department ran out of medic units as a Holmesburg woman lay dying in her apartment New Year's morning.
CBS
An official report confirmed the Philadelphia Fire Department ran out of medic units as a Holmesburg woman lay dying in her apartment New Year's morning.
There were too few medics and far too many calls early New Year's morning and so inside her apartment 55-year-old Deborah Payne dialed 911 and waited for advance life support that took nearly two hours to reach her.
According to the fire department's internal investigation:
"No medic units were available for immediate dispatch ... the FCC (Fire Communications Center) was inundated with 911 calls."
In addition to three major car crashes, medics answered scores of needless calls that left them unavailable for real emergencies.
The report explains:
"There were 162 EMS incidents compressed into a three hour time frame…the unavailability of…six medic units at this critical time certainly impacted on the PFD's ability to respond promptly to other emergencies."
As first reported by CBS 3, the report found it took the first medics one hour and six minutes to arrive and advanced life support did not get to the apartment for one hour and 44 minutes after the first call was placed.
Meanwhile, Payne was pronounced dead inside the first medic unit which had broken down outside the apartment building, unable to head to the hospital.
Missing from the Fire Department's assessment is why medics and a private ambulance were on duty just a few blocks away the entire time and were never alerted.
Fire department policy does not permit calling private ambulances for help, even when the fire department runs out of units to dispatch, as was the case with Payne's situation.
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