By Theodore Decker
The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Debbie Cameron watched as her husband of 25 years, in the throes of a massive heart attack, was loaded into the back of the medic truck waiting outside their North Side home.
The driver put his foot on the brake of the idling rig and shifted into gear.
The truck went dark. Then Cameron listened in disbelief as fire Capt. Jim Davis, an EMS supervisor, told her about an unexpected complication at a critical time.
“We’re having some mechanical problems with the rig,” she remembers him saying.
Davis confirmed what the crew told Cameron last Wednesday: that they would have to wait for another medic unit to take her husband to the hospital but that he was receiving the best care they could provide.
Rick Cameron, 52, made it alive to University Hospital East and then to OSU Medical Center’s catheterization lab, where doctors cleared a fully blocked coronary artery, which had led to his attack.
His family prayed for his survival, but Cameron died about 2 a.m. Monday.
Now, his family is outraged that a city truck with bad batteries delayed his arrival at the hospital, although they concede that they might never know whether the delay contributed to his death.
“It really angers me that they would put someone’s life in jeopardy like that,” Mrs. Cameron said.
Fire officials say they often are forced to deal with the unexpected during emergencies, noting that the same sort of delay could be caused by a medic getting stuck in snow or being involved in a crash.
“It’s not something that we want to have happen, especially during a dire situation, such as it was,” Fire Chief Ned Pettus Jr. said.
The president of the local firefighters union said there has been a string of problems with older emergency vehicles.
“This was a prime example of where our aging fleet had a direct impact on our customer base,” Jack Reall said.
After Medic 20 died, a second medic unit was dispatched and arrived at the Cameron house nine minutes later, records show.
Dr. David Keseg, the fire division’s medical director, couldn’t say what, if any, impact such a delay might have had on Cameron.
But no one would dispute “that every minute in that situation is precious,” Keseg said. “We certainly would have chosen (to) not have this truck break down.”
But paramedics worked on Cameron the entire time, providing care on par with an emergency room, he said.
“I think they gave him every chance of survival.”
Medic 20 dates to 1999 and had 177,874 miles on it as of March 20. Its batteries had been replaced twice between June and last Wednesday, after complaints that it wouldn’t start or hold a charge, records show.
Reall said medic trucks should be replaced every five years.
“We ought to be looking at maintaining these fire trucks like we’re maintaining our kid’s first new car,” he said.
Pettus said the city has done what it can to upgrade its fleet within budget constraints. Mayor Michael B. Coleman pledged earlier this month to buy $6 million worth of fire trucks this year, including 16 new medic units. The city has 32 front-line medics.
Rick Cameron was a life-long trucker and a NASCAR fan who relished family retreats in their Hocking Hills camper. His daughter, Tyffany Ferrell, called him the glue that held the family together.
“Or the duct tape, depending on what he was working on,” another daughter, April Corrick, said.
A memorial service for him is today. Then, his widow will seek answers.
“I just don’t want it to happen to anybody else,” she said.
As of yesterday afternoon, Medic 20 was back in service.
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