By Andrew Gant
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Archie Beard was a tall, strong 81-year-old man who never had a chest pain. No ambulance had ever been to his family’s single-story home on Pope Avenue in South Daytona.
That changed on a Sunday afternoon in February, when the Army veteran’s daughter saw him slumped over in his chair in front of the TV.
Margaret, Beard’s wife of 52 years, called 9-1-1 at 1:16 p.m. Time crawled. Beard’s daughter, Kathleen, went to seek help. His 13-year-old granddaughter offered to try CPR while a dispatcher tried to coach the family through saving his life.
Four miles away and eight minutes after Margaret dialed 9-1-1, an ambulance crew was about to force their way through a locked door. But it was the wrong address. The wrong city.
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