By John Lundy
Duluth News Tribune
DULUTH, Minn. — It’s a nightmare scenario: An ambulance en route to the hospital slides on ice, strikes a guard rail and flips over. The paramedics become victims. They survive, but their patient dies.
That’s what happened to the crew of the Itasca County-based Meds-1 EMS ambulance that was transferring 76-year-old Iven H. Othoudt from the Deer River HealthCare Center to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth on Friday evening. The accident occurred when the driver, Cynthia R. Hemphill, 48, of Deer River lost control of the ambulance on U.S. Highway 2 near the St. Louis River bridge. It sideswiped a Jeep Cherokee on the west shoulder of the road, careened into a guard rail and rolled into a ditch.
Othoudt died because of the accident, St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Uncini said. He declined to be more specific about the nature or cause of Othoudt’s injury.
No tickets were issued because of the accident, which occurred during icy road conditions, according to the initial State Patrol report. The State Patrol conducted an accident reconstruction on Wednesday.
Meds-1 EMS in Grand Rapids will re-evaluate its procedures because of the accident, said Timothy George, director of operations.
“Anytime an accident happens … we look at all of our processes that we have as to something that could make a difference,” George said, but added: “I don’t know what type of changes we would make in our processes. We have a very robust safety system.”
The accident has been an emotional subject at the ambulance service, George said.
It doesn’t happen often. In 2008, the most recent year for which numbers are available, ambulances were involved in 41 accidents in Minnesota, according to information from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. By contrast, 40 fire trucks were involved in accidents, 596 police vehicles and 670 school buses. Moreover, only six people were injured in the accidents involving ambulances, and only one of those was considered severe.
In fact, only three patients — including Othoudt — have died in ambulance crashes in the state during the past 14 years, George said. In the other two instances, drivers and/or paramedics also were killed.
In Friday’s accident, Hemphill, the driver, and a paramedic, David P. McClellan, 26, of Hibbing were injured and taken to Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, where they were treated for their injuries and released. George declined on Wednesday to discuss the nature of their injuries, but did say they haven’t been able to return to work.
Matt Will, regional coach for Gold Cross Ambulance in Duluth, and George both said patients are well-secured in the backs of ambulances. The cots are anchored in two places, Will said, and the patient is secured with four sets of straps.
“Our policy is unless it interferes with providing patient care, the patient is restrained,” Will said. Situations when a restraint has to be removed are “pretty infrequent,” he said.
George noted that the police report stated Othoudt was properly restrained when Friday’s accident occurred.
Paramedics also are required to be strapped in unless patient care requires otherwise. “If they can be restrained, we want them to be restrained,” Will said.
Gold Cross also keeps the times its vehicles run with red lights and sirens to a minimum, Will said.
Republished with permission from The Duluth News Tribune