By ERIN AILWORTH and ETAN HOROWITZ
Orlando Sentinel
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. - An emergency-room doctor was fired and is under investigation after allegations that, in violation of a federal law, he refused to treat a boy who nearly drowned.
The doctor, John Milton Jr., says it’s all a misunderstanding. He said he would never leave a patient without the proper care.
The boy - who was in critical condition after falling into a friend’s backyard swimming pool in Edgewater on Thursday - lay on an ambulance gurney at Bert Fish Medical Center in New Smyrna Beach for about 13 minutes before being taken to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, according to the EVAC Ambulance service.
Hospital and emergency officials said Milton’s unwillingness to treat the boy, described as being 7 or 8 years old, unnecessarily delayed the child’s treatment because EVAC paramedics then had to battle rush-hour traffic for 16 minutes to get the boy to Halifax.