2 DCFEMS crewmembers accused of Chick-fil-A stop ahead of ALS call
The department is investigating the incident; the responders said in a report that they were hungry and fatigued
By Leila Merrill
EMS1
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two D.C. firefighter-EMS providers have been accused of delaying their arrival at an ALS call because they stopped to pick up their order at Chick-fil-A.
A person called 911 on March 24 and said a woman was suffering from chest pain, News4 reported.
“Ambulance 3 and Medic 3 respond for ALS chest pain for a 57-year-old female at Kaiser Permanente,” a 911 dispatcher said just after 4 p.m.
A D.C. Fire and EMS report said that the Ambulance 3 crewmembers said they were having a busy day and were hungry and fatigued.
They went to a Chick-fil-A about a mile from the call location.
The firefighters said they had put in their order before the call came and they chose to stop for "literally a few minutes tops," according to a fire department report obtained by News4. The report written by one of the firefighters states "there was no delay in patient care or response."
But Ambulance 3 was closer than Medic 3.
In the report, the Ambulance 3 firefighters say they arrived at the same time as the other crew.
The patient was transported to a hospital.
In a statement, D.C. Fire and EMS said, "Our response monitoring system captured an anomaly in the response of Ambulance 3. This has led to an investigation and both crew members of Ambulance 3 have been placed in [a] no patient contact status."
