Call the Cops The 27th Most Trusted Site in Public Safety
Marie Barone, a 76 year old widower, woke up this morning feeling like she had a sinus infection. Apparently she had a bit of congestion all week, but today it felt worse. So she called 911 and asked for an ambulance to take her to the ER.
Patient wants to sue for being forced to wait in waiting room
One of the EMTs told us this on the condition we did not use his name.
“Our boss is super progressive. He says if someone calls 911 we still have an obligation to transport just encase there is a deeper underlying medical issue. But we have no obligation to bring them to the ER effectively circumventing the triage system. So in these non-emergency situations we go to the clinic and drop them off in the waiting room. Stuffy nose and sinus pressure, that is four days old, is a about as non life threatening as it comes.”
Marie does not see it the same way.
“I called 911. That is the number for an emergency. To me this is an emergency. My over the counter medication was not working. I was in pain. I deserved to be taken to the emergency room and seen right away just like 911 was designed to work.”
Marie later in our interview was also very critical training and abilities of the EMTs who saw to her.
“Those two ambulance drivers were about as useful as taxi drivers. If I wanted to sit in a waiting room I would drive myself. I am not going to pay a $1000 for a ride in an ambulance just to still have to sit for 3 hours to be looked at. Pulse do you know how embarrassing it was to have everyone looking at me being wheeled in to that waiting room on then unceremoniously dumped off. Trust me 9am Monday morning I am in my lawyers office, I will sue them for everything they got.”
A nurse was willing to confirm that Marie did only have a sinus infection and was given a z-pack. ER staff then called Marie a yellow taxi to bring her home.
