I have attached the following article regarding ambulance breakdowns in Atlanta, and wonder if their reliability issues are common elsewhere in our country.
Whistleblower: Ambulance Breakdowns Happen Often
Wendy Saltzman, CBS Atlanta Investigates
POSTED: 5:11 pm EST November 12, 2009
UPDATED: 5:28 pm EST November 20, 2009
ATLANTA -- Imagine your life is in danger and you call 911 for help. But what happens next may be one of the most terrifying experiences of your life: The ambulance that is supposed to rescue you breaks down, unable to take you or your loved one to the hospital.
CBS Atlanta Chief Investigative Reporter Wendy Saltzman uncovered a rash of ambulance breakdowns that may be putting people's lives in jeopardy.
And Saltzman said the most disturbing part of this investigation -- that this has happened often. A whistleblower stepped forward with a warning that ambulances are breaking down with patients practically on a daily basis.
That's what happened in the case of Courtney McClellan.
"She was going into convulsions," her husband Tony Murphy told us.
In 2008, Murphy dialed 911. Courtney had fallen into an insulin coma that left her unconscious.
"I will usually just fall to the floor and go into convulsions," McClellan said. "Once, I even turned blue and stopped breathing."
What happened next stunned Murphy, and it is more common than many of us may have imagined. The ambulance that was to take Courtney to the hospital broke down, delayed on the way to a life-threatening call because it wouldn't go over 20 mph.
"It is pretty frightening thinking about the possibilities of what might have happened," Murphy said.
Our 9-month investigation uncovered that Grady Hospital, the area’s largest trauma center, has had dozens of ambulances in critical condition -- ambulances that were dying in the middle of emergency runs.
Internal reports obtained by CBS Atlanta News showed EMS Units breaking down on the scene of emergencies on a regular basis. The vehicles were unable to get patients to the hospital because of problems like no steering, being unable to turn, brakes going out, vehicles shutting off in drive, others smoking and/or losing sirens and power.
In one case, the reports indicated, a driver had to hold his door shut as he tried to drive to the scene of an emergency.
"That's not uncommon?" CBS Atlanta's Wendy Saltzman asked whistleblower Eugene Davenport.
"No, no. We are having mission failures pretty much daily, every other day," he warned.
Davenport is a former fleet manager for Grady EMS. He said he found himself on the unemployment line after he questioned his boss about a critical mission failure.
"I think the final straw was when I questioned him about a unit that broke down and the patient died," Davenport said.
Davenport worked at Grady for 25 years, and he says he was only written up one in his tenure, just weeks before he was fired.
"It was a code one patient, which is a cardiac arrest, and it took them a delay of 30 minutes to get to the hospital," he said.
And that's not Davenport's only concern. Each of the broken down ambulances he saw daily, he said, had the potential of being a life lost.
"I said, 'I cannot be a part of this. Somebody's got to find this out,'" Davenport said.
Davenport learned about our investigation from the inside. He said he was told not to turn over records to us by his boss, Grady EMS Director Bill Compton.
“He also told me if I let any information get out of our department I would be terminated," Davenport said.
When we asked Compton if Davenport was fired after questioning the delay that resulted in the death of that cardiac arrest patient, Compton responded, "I don't have any documentation that I have any such recollection of that every occurring."
Compton defends Grady's fleet as "dependable" and says they have nothing to hide.
"We do not feel that we are putting our patients at risk. Nor have we had any documented cases of patient negative outcome," Compton said.
Compton estimates the number of breakdowns is 12 a month and not every day. And he said that's minor in comparison to the 8,000 calls they take every month.
So we asked him about the life-threatening cardiac arrest.
"I don't have that case in front of me. Nor do I, I don't know what case you are referring to," Compton replied. "All I can tell you emphatically that whenever that case was, that there were no negative patient outcomes as a result of a mission failure. We don't really think we have significant delays."
But contrary to Compton's claims that there has been no impact or delay on patients, CBS Atlanta News has uncovered an e-mail, which confirmed that the unit that broke down in the cardiac arrest case took 26 minutes to get to the call. That email also said it was the second breakdown in ten days.
"Do those units need to be pulled off the streets?" Saltzman asked Compton.
"No, we are comfortable with those units," he answered.
We received another e-mail from an insider from a few days before in October. It says another unit died while transporting another critical patient to the hospital. That patient was also in severe respiratory distress.
"Do you think these ambulance breakdowns are putting people's lives at risk?" Saltzman asked Eugene Davenport.
"Yes. Yes," he responded.
Grady had 3 of their 43 ambulances down when we did that interview on Monday. In 2008, Grady EMS lost nearly $7 million in funding. And in 2009, they cut $1 million from the maintenance for their fleet.
Their response times to emergency calls increased to 12 minutes a call in June of last year. Previously, their average response target was 8 minutes.
And now we have uncovered new details as more whistleblowers are stepping forward to share their concerns about the critical condition of Grady's emergency response system.
Sandy Harvill was the Chief Communications Officer for Grady's 911 center.
"There is going to be the patient that is going to die. Somebody is going to need an ambulance, and they are not going to get it, and they are going to die," she told Saltzman.
That warning comes from someone who was on the inside. Harvill saw ambulance breakdowns and critical patient delays from the front line.
"The trucks are in terrible shape. Some are so old that when you are in the back of the truck there are no many exhaust fumes coming in that by the time the end of the shift comes the paramedics would be just about sick having headaches because of it," Harvill continued.
And now we have learned those breakdowns created another frightening fallout. According to Harvill and Eugene Davenport, Grady would run out of ambulances to respond to emergency calls--otherwise known as a Level Zero-- on a daily basis. Our whistleblowers said someone would call with a life threatening emergency, and there would be no ambulances available to respond.
"I hear some calls hold up to 5, 10, 15 minutes at the most," Davenport said.
And in spite of the delays documented by these whistleblowers and in these records obtained by CBS Atlanta News, Grady EMS Director Bill Compton at first downplayed the problem, and said Level Zero is, "not a regular occurrence."
But when questioned further by Saltzman he admitted up to the facts, saying, "You could go on a daily basis."
Yet Compton still defends his emergency response system, even where there are no ambulance to respond to emergency calls.
"In any event that you do not have an immediate ambulance we have a very reliable mutual aid we practice with all of the other providers that we use on a regular basis," Compton told CBS Atlanta News.
But Harvill warns that result is major patient delays.
"The problem was that those backup services were as busy as we were at those times of the day," she said. "If something isn't done very quickly, that patient's going to be dead."
And Harvill provided CBS Atlanta News with records that prove Level Zero's sometimes last for hours at a time.
"Sometimes from 10 or 11 in the morning till 6 or 7 at night," according to Harvill.
She says she resigned because she questions Compton's ethics, and says he covered up the problem instead of fixing it.
"I think some of the things he had done are immoral and unethical at best, and possibly illegal at worst," Harvill cautioned.
In fact, CBS Atlanta News has uncovered a shocking email in which Grady CEO Michael Young offers his solution to Grady's problem of transporting patients.
In it he says, "Why not give them a $20 cab ticket and get out of the business."
We've requested an interview with Mr. Young and all of the Grady Board Members, but they're being shielded from us by their PR Staff.
There is much more to this story and were still breaking new details. If you have a have a story to tell, please email me at wendy.saltzman@cbsatlanta.com.
Whistleblower: Ambulance Breakdowns Happen Often
Wendy Saltzman, CBS Atlanta Investigates
POSTED: 5:11 pm EST November 12, 2009
UPDATED: 5:28 pm EST November 20, 2009
ATLANTA -- Imagine your life is in danger and you call 911 for help. But what happens next may be one of the most terrifying experiences of your life: The ambulance that is supposed to rescue you breaks down, unable to take you or your loved one to the hospital.
CBS Atlanta Chief Investigative Reporter Wendy Saltzman uncovered a rash of ambulance breakdowns that may be putting people's lives in jeopardy.
And Saltzman said the most disturbing part of this investigation -- that this has happened often. A whistleblower stepped forward with a warning that ambulances are breaking down with patients practically on a daily basis.
That's what happened in the case of Courtney McClellan.
"She was going into convulsions," her husband Tony Murphy told us.
In 2008, Murphy dialed 911. Courtney had fallen into an insulin coma that left her unconscious.
"I will usually just fall to the floor and go into convulsions," McClellan said. "Once, I even turned blue and stopped breathing."
What happened next stunned Murphy, and it is more common than many of us may have imagined. The ambulance that was to take Courtney to the hospital broke down, delayed on the way to a life-threatening call because it wouldn't go over 20 mph.
"It is pretty frightening thinking about the possibilities of what might have happened," Murphy said.
Our 9-month investigation uncovered that Grady Hospital, the area’s largest trauma center, has had dozens of ambulances in critical condition -- ambulances that were dying in the middle of emergency runs.
Internal reports obtained by CBS Atlanta News showed EMS Units breaking down on the scene of emergencies on a regular basis. The vehicles were unable to get patients to the hospital because of problems like no steering, being unable to turn, brakes going out, vehicles shutting off in drive, others smoking and/or losing sirens and power.
In one case, the reports indicated, a driver had to hold his door shut as he tried to drive to the scene of an emergency.
"That's not uncommon?" CBS Atlanta's Wendy Saltzman asked whistleblower Eugene Davenport.
"No, no. We are having mission failures pretty much daily, every other day," he warned.
Davenport is a former fleet manager for Grady EMS. He said he found himself on the unemployment line after he questioned his boss about a critical mission failure.
"I think the final straw was when I questioned him about a unit that broke down and the patient died," Davenport said.
Davenport worked at Grady for 25 years, and he says he was only written up one in his tenure, just weeks before he was fired.
"It was a code one patient, which is a cardiac arrest, and it took them a delay of 30 minutes to get to the hospital," he said.
And that's not Davenport's only concern. Each of the broken down ambulances he saw daily, he said, had the potential of being a life lost.
"I said, 'I cannot be a part of this. Somebody's got to find this out,'" Davenport said.
Davenport learned about our investigation from the inside. He said he was told not to turn over records to us by his boss, Grady EMS Director Bill Compton.
“He also told me if I let any information get out of our department I would be terminated," Davenport said.
When we asked Compton if Davenport was fired after questioning the delay that resulted in the death of that cardiac arrest patient, Compton responded, "I don't have any documentation that I have any such recollection of that every occurring."
Compton defends Grady's fleet as "dependable" and says they have nothing to hide.
"We do not feel that we are putting our patients at risk. Nor have we had any documented cases of patient negative outcome," Compton said.
Compton estimates the number of breakdowns is 12 a month and not every day. And he said that's minor in comparison to the 8,000 calls they take every month.
So we asked him about the life-threatening cardiac arrest.
"I don't have that case in front of me. Nor do I, I don't know what case you are referring to," Compton replied. "All I can tell you emphatically that whenever that case was, that there were no negative patient outcomes as a result of a mission failure. We don't really think we have significant delays."
But contrary to Compton's claims that there has been no impact or delay on patients, CBS Atlanta News has uncovered an e-mail, which confirmed that the unit that broke down in the cardiac arrest case took 26 minutes to get to the call. That email also said it was the second breakdown in ten days.
"Do those units need to be pulled off the streets?" Saltzman asked Compton.
"No, we are comfortable with those units," he answered.
We received another e-mail from an insider from a few days before in October. It says another unit died while transporting another critical patient to the hospital. That patient was also in severe respiratory distress.
"Do you think these ambulance breakdowns are putting people's lives at risk?" Saltzman asked Eugene Davenport.
"Yes. Yes," he responded.
Grady had 3 of their 43 ambulances down when we did that interview on Monday. In 2008, Grady EMS lost nearly $7 million in funding. And in 2009, they cut $1 million from the maintenance for their fleet.
Their response times to emergency calls increased to 12 minutes a call in June of last year. Previously, their average response target was 8 minutes.
And now we have uncovered new details as more whistleblowers are stepping forward to share their concerns about the critical condition of Grady's emergency response system.
Sandy Harvill was the Chief Communications Officer for Grady's 911 center.
"There is going to be the patient that is going to die. Somebody is going to need an ambulance, and they are not going to get it, and they are going to die," she told Saltzman.
That warning comes from someone who was on the inside. Harvill saw ambulance breakdowns and critical patient delays from the front line.
"The trucks are in terrible shape. Some are so old that when you are in the back of the truck there are no many exhaust fumes coming in that by the time the end of the shift comes the paramedics would be just about sick having headaches because of it," Harvill continued.
And now we have learned those breakdowns created another frightening fallout. According to Harvill and Eugene Davenport, Grady would run out of ambulances to respond to emergency calls--otherwise known as a Level Zero-- on a daily basis. Our whistleblowers said someone would call with a life threatening emergency, and there would be no ambulances available to respond.
"I hear some calls hold up to 5, 10, 15 minutes at the most," Davenport said.
And in spite of the delays documented by these whistleblowers and in these records obtained by CBS Atlanta News, Grady EMS Director Bill Compton at first downplayed the problem, and said Level Zero is, "not a regular occurrence."
But when questioned further by Saltzman he admitted up to the facts, saying, "You could go on a daily basis."
Yet Compton still defends his emergency response system, even where there are no ambulance to respond to emergency calls.
"In any event that you do not have an immediate ambulance we have a very reliable mutual aid we practice with all of the other providers that we use on a regular basis," Compton told CBS Atlanta News.
But Harvill warns that result is major patient delays.
"The problem was that those backup services were as busy as we were at those times of the day," she said. "If something isn't done very quickly, that patient's going to be dead."
And Harvill provided CBS Atlanta News with records that prove Level Zero's sometimes last for hours at a time.
"Sometimes from 10 or 11 in the morning till 6 or 7 at night," according to Harvill.
She says she resigned because she questions Compton's ethics, and says he covered up the problem instead of fixing it.
"I think some of the things he had done are immoral and unethical at best, and possibly illegal at worst," Harvill cautioned.
In fact, CBS Atlanta News has uncovered a shocking email in which Grady CEO Michael Young offers his solution to Grady's problem of transporting patients.
In it he says, "Why not give them a $20 cab ticket and get out of the business."
We've requested an interview with Mr. Young and all of the Grady Board Members, but they're being shielded from us by their PR Staff.
There is much more to this story and were still breaking new details. If you have a have a story to tell, please email me at wendy.saltzman@cbsatlanta.com.
