Sick Woman Gets Out of Ambulance, Takes Metro to Hospital After Fighting First Responders Made Her Feel Unsafe
An ailing Washington, D.C. woman who called 911 for help getting emergency medical attention said she was forced to walk away from a city ambulance and take the local Metro to a hospital after two members of D.C. Fire and EMS started a heated argument in front of her.
Rose Preston told NBC Washington that she called 911 when she thought she was having a stroke after she started feeling numbness and tingling on the left side of her face about 2:15 a.m. on March 15. Emergency workers quickly arrived and ushered her inside an ambulance. Once inside, Preston said a heated argument broke out between the two members of D.C. Fire and EMS.
"They were constantly bickering back and forth with one another, and to the point that I felt so uncomfortable," said Preston, who is also an Army veteran. "I didn't feel safe being transported by the vehicle," she said.
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She explained that after she received oxygen, she decided to exit the ambulance before the first responders began driving off.
The report noted that Paramedic Engine 27 had responded to Preston's call from Deanwood in Northeast, as well as Ambulance 19 from Southeast.
In a March 18 memo to Chief Kenneth Ellerbe, it was explained that one of the EMTs asked one of the firefighters to get the firefighter medic to the scene due to the nature of Preston's emergency.
"Someone went and got him and my partner asked him if he was going to check out the [patient] due to the nature of the dispatch. Medic started to assess the [patient] and he and my partner got into a verbal altercation about why it was needed for someone to get him," noted the memo.
Ken Lyons, AFGE Local 3721 president, explained that the firefighter medic's presence was requested because basic EMTs are not allowed to perform certain types of medical procedures.
Preston called the first responders completely unprofessional in the memo and said no concern was raised when she decided to leave. No one even bothered to ask her to sign a standard patient refusal form. She later reportedly received an apology and was told she should still go to the hospital, and later that day she took the Metro to get medical care.
Preston discovered she wasn't experiencing a stroke that morning but was suffering from Bell's palsy.
"It really complicated my condition by not being able to receive adequate medical attention when I called," she said.
