Thursday, April 28, 2011

** Ohio EMS brass investigating after dispatcher tells choking boy’s mom ambulance response could take hours

** UK paramedic to be at front of abbey during royal wedding

UNITED STATES NEWS

** An Ohio ambulance dispatcher is on the hot seat after telling a distraught parent it could be hours before medics arrived on scene to treat her choking son. 19 Action News (April 26) said Cleveland city officials are now investigating the early April incident which ended with the woman driving her handicapped child to the hospital herself. According to the newspaper, the dispatcher told the woman no EMS units were available for call. It was later learned he had miscoded the priority of the help hail.

UNITED KINGDOM NEWS

** A Woodford Green paramedic will have a front row seat to the royal nuptials this weekend as one of only eight practitioners set to be stationed inside Westminster Abbey. The Guardian (Joe Curtis/April 26) said Repton Park resident Kelly Mann, 47, will join other Red Cross volunteers to administer aid to anyone who might fall ill during the marriage ceremony of Prince William and Kate Middleton. She will be only metres away from the couple. Mann, who is a Whitehall civil servant during her regular job hours, works with the organization about 10 hours a month.