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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 07/17/2003 7:46:28 AM PDT by Theodore R.
As he lay dying, ambulances went elsewhere By John Semien semien@gomemphis.com July 17, 2003
As ambulance drivers bounced from one wrong destination to another, James Hill Wagner lay on a pool hall floor, friends pleading with him to stay alive.
The 68-year-old was competing in a pool tournament when he collapsed over a pool table shortly after 9 p.m. July 9.
It took 30 minutes from the first 911 call for an ambulance to reach Wagner at The Billiard Club, 2686 Kirby-Whitten - after units were mistakenly sent to at least three other locations.
Friends and club employees spent those desperate minutes doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation and repeatedly calling 911 to try to hurry the ambulance.
When the ambulance arrived at 9:31 p.m., Wagner wasn't breathing. He died later that night at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis.
Fire Department officials are reviewing the incident to figure out what went wrong.
Club employees and patrons are furious at what they see as a mistake that could have been prevented.
Dora Wagner said her husband had a history of heart problems, but she believes a faster response might have made the difference.
"My husband's life could have been saved if they had gotten there faster," she said.
City Attorney Robert Spence said fire officials are trying to learn from the mistake to keep it from happening again.
"Obviously there was confusion about where it was they were supposed to be," Spence said. "They were all over the place."
When Wagner collapsed, Bill Tschume, a bartender at The Billiard Club, said he called 911, was accidentally disconnected, called right back and was told an ambulance was on the way.
"After about eight minutes, I called back and wanted to know an ETA and they said eight minutes," he said.
At that news, Tschume said a man and his stepdaughter went on foot to fetch help from Bartlett Fire Station No. 1 on Altruria.
But station officials told them a Memphis ambulance was already on its way.
"It was another 15 or 16 minutes before Memphis got there," Tschume said.
Other patrons who called 911 were told the ambulance was having trouble locating the address, he said.
Fire Department records show the first emergency call came in at 9:01 p.m., listing the club at 2686 Kirby - not 2686 Kirby-Whitten.
A second call came at 9:03 p.m. that listed the address as 2800 Whitten. A third call at 9:18 p.m. listed the address as 1010 Whitten.
The Hillshire-area club is just outside Bartlett's city limits.
Memphis annexed that area this year, which may have compounded the confusion.
Bartlett Fire Chief Paul Smith said officials received a call from Memphis dispatchers asking if the club was in Memphis or Bartlett.
Smith said the departments have a mutual aid agreement that allows them to call on each other for help in an emergency. But firefighters don't usually answer calls outside city limits.
"If they had brought him to the station, that would have been different," he said. "They would have provided assistance."
Bartlett firefighters called Memphis officials when the club patrons came for help and were told an ambulance was on its way, Smith said.
Memphis Fire Department officials refused to comment, referring questions to Spence.
Club employees and friends said boundary lines seem silly when a life is at stake.
"I say the closest unit ought to respond if it's in Shelby County," Tschume said.
Wagner, a retired businessman who had co-owned a company that sold pinball machines and other games, was a regular at The Billiard Club, said friend Chet Felts.
"He was a nice, friendly, kind old man who would do anything in the world for you," Felts said. "It was a man's life lost due to a dispute over (boundary) lines."
- John Semien: 529-6524
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Considering that the people who called 911 gave wildly disparate addresses for the place, it's somewhat difficult to blame emergency services for this one.
What happened to "enhanced 911" ???
You dial that here and they know the address before they even answer the phone call!!!
and don't even get Me started on the station down the street that REFUSED TO HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would be sueing their A$$ off if I were in that family.
The area in question had just been annexed to the city, and it sounds like they hadn't made it to the database yet.
and don't even get Me started on the station down the street that REFUSED TO HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They have fire dispatchers for a reason -- to ensure that a bunch of stations don't all respond to something, leaving other places unprotected. Fire units go where they're told to go. Given that the ambulance was already on the way (albeit misdirected), there doesn't seem to be any justification for tying up a second resource.
I would have to disagree. The city of Memphis shares an enhanced 911 system with Shelby Co. According to their own Emergency Communications Division Responsibilities bulletin, step number 4 in answering a 911 call is 'If the “911” information is provided on the screen, confirm the information and ask any other questions which may be required, depending on the type of call and the service desired. If the 911 screen does not provide the "Customer Information", then the following information must be obtained by the dispatcher: A. Nature of Call, B. Address or Location, C. Call back phone number, D. Name of Caller, and Caller must be kept on the line until services arrive.'
It is obvious that this step in the procedure was not followed correctly and that emergency services are directly responsible.
Well, the fact remains that dispatchers were given several wrong addresses, and it's clear that the enhanced system either did not provide a correct address.
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