Contaminated ambulance sent on call for child

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DC Fire and EMS defends decision to send contaminated ambulance out on call

3 June

WASHINGTON -

D.C. Fire and EMS is defending a decision to send a contaminated ambulance to care for a 12-year-old boy.

An EMT was sent out on a call last week after a patient vomited on him and he was unable to change his clothes.

Fire officials said they got 50 calls for service within a relatively short period of time.

The department said the officer in charge made the right call, but the union disagrees.

Last Tuesday morning, the crew of Ambulance 26 got a call to assist an elderly man at a residence on Bladensburg Road in Northeast D.C.

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the call, the crew had put the patient into the back of the rig when the man suddenly became sick and began throwing up.

Immediately after the crew of Ambulance 26 delivered their patient to the hospital, they asked for permission to come back to the firehouse on Rhode Island Avenue so they could decontaminate the ambulance by washing it out with bleach, and for the firefighter, whose clothing was soiled, to change his clothes and take a shower.

But that request was denied. An official tried to intervene and that request was also denied. So the crew of Ambulance 26 took another run and headed to Hardy Middle School where a 12-year-old boy had broken his arm.

The two sources familiar with the run said the crew wiped down the ambulance the best they could and the firefighter cleaned off his pants, but the stench remained.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/25685906/dc-fire-and-ems-defends-decision-to-send-contaminated-ambulance-out-on-call#axzz33lbWEgot