By EMS1 Staff
CLEVELAND — A man who was shot 16 times by a shooter with an automatic rifle was refused treatment by an EMS agency because he drove across the street into another town.
Cleveland.com reported that investigators are looking into whether or not a dispatcher violated policy by declining to send an ambulance to the man who was ambushed by a shooter at his home as he was backing out of his driveway, according to police.
The man was shot in the right side of his chest, his shoulder, his hand, both of his knees and his foot. He drove outside of city limits and crossed into Euclid, where a police officer found him.
A police report said Cleveland EMS refused to respond because he was outside of city limits, but Euclid’s ambulance was already on a call.
The police officer who found him transported him to the hospital in his cruiser, and he was later flown to another hospital by helicopter.
Cleveland EMS policy does not say what a dispatcher should do if a gunshot victim was injured in Cleveland but is in another city. The only related policy instructs dispatchers on how to respond if another city asks for help.