Is 12 ½ Minutes Too Long to Wait for an Ambulance?
From the time the 9-1-1 call was made, it took 12 and a half minutes for an ambulance to reach Danny Cruz, who was suffering a severe asthma attack in his home in Red Hook. He spent nearly two weeks in the hospital on life support before he died.
Brigid Bergin, WNYC City Hall and politics reporter, says this is a worst-case scenario, but it raises the question: How long should someone have to wait when the city says assistance is on the way?
Bergin digs into a new report from the Citizens Budget Commission that shows that since EMS merged with FDNY, the vast majority of calls to the fire department are now for medical emergencies, but response times remain a problem.
2014's EMS response time: 9m13secs. 2015: 9m22secs. @brigidbergin reports a record # of incident calls in 2015. pic.twitter.com/wXFbAkCKg7
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) December 11, 2015
Listening to @BrianLehrer? Our report has all the specifics on medical calls and how to integrate FDNY after 20 yrs: https://t.co/0tJiWKHQ85
— Citizens Budget Comm (@cbcny) December 11, 2015
