Denver Paramedics: Airport Vulnerable to Slow Response

DENVER --

As thousands converge here for the Democratic National Convention, the CALL7 Investigators discovered a potentially deadly situation with emergency response to Denver International Airport.

CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski found the Denver Paramedics division is, at times, understaffed which could lead to a delayed response for patients awaiting ambulances at DIA.

The latest example, in July, a father from Parker died at the airport of a pulmonary embolism after waiting nearly 40 minutes for an ambulance.

The closest available ambulance, when the call came in, was 24 miles away.

"He didn't even get a chance to make it to the hospital," said Vickie, the widow who asked that we only identify her by first name.

Recordings of dispatch conversations obtained by 7NEWS showed the extent of the problem as the dispatcher for Denver Health, realizing the gravity of the situation, tried to reach out to private ambulance company for assistance.

The Denver Health dispatcher asked, "Do you have anybody for DIA?"

The dispatcher for the private ambulance contractor laughed and said, "Yeah, not even."

"He was lucid and talking for a good 20 minutes, so I have to ask myself what if he had got to the ER while he was still talking. Would the outcome have been different?" said Vickie. "The most difficult thing is making the plans to come home and tell your children."

Bob Petre, a veteran paramedic and president of Denver Health's paramedic union told 7NEWS, "The biggest contributing factor is there is no ambulances available to send anywhere near the airport or even available to cover that whole side of the city."

Petre said, "The hospital routinely runs out of advance life support ambulances and there's no one available to send. They're aware of the problem. They've been aware of the problem for a long time and they've decided not to fix it."

In May, CALL7 Investigators first exposed problems with emergency responses from Denver Health, including working ambulances being scratched from shifts, leading to delays.

"People absolutely are waiting for ambulances longer than they should," said one Denver paramedic, in May, who did not want to be identified.

Another told 7NEWS, "We're understaffed. We have half as many ambulances as our next closest city."

For Vickie's husband, records show it took 33 minutes for the ambulance to arrive at DIA.

Paramedics tell 7NEWS it was another five minutes before the stretcher reached gate B36.

Vickie's husband did not arrive at the nearest emergency room for one hour and nine minutes after the first call for help.

Denver Health admitted to 7NEWS that a dispatch error contributed to the delayed response.

Initially the ambulance call was a "Code 9" meaning non-emergent, but was quickly upgraded to "Code 10" which means full lights and sirens.

Problem is, the dispatcher did not relay the upgraded code for 16 minutes.

"Are you at all embarrassed by a 33 minute ambulance response time?" Kovaleski asked Dr. Vince Markovchick of Denver Health.

Markovchick supervised the emergency response to Vickie's husband.

"I would have liked it to be about 28 minutes. That would have been the best we could have done," replied Markovchick.

He added, "There are times in every city when the system is overloaded with calls, when you can't get an ambulance to respond from a very close in place."

Denver Health maintains there is no guarantee a faster response would have saved Vickie's husband.

When asked by Kovaleski if Denver Health owed the family an apology, Markovchick responded, "No, because the care was completely appropriate the entire time. Had the ambulance gotten there five minutes earlier the patient would have arrested just as he was being put into the ambulance rather than a couple of minutes before."

Denver City Councilman Michael Hancock did not accept that reasoning and told 7NEWS, "I hope we don't have that kind of attitude. That's unfortunate to hear that from any authority or any medical facility in our city."

Hancock's district includes DIA.

"I think this story points out or this whole situation points out that not only was DIA uncovered by an ambulance but the entire far northeast quadrant of the city was uncovered by an ambulance," said Hancock who believes accountability lies with the Chief Executive Officer of Denver Health, Patti Gabow.

"Clearly this stops, as far as I'm concerned, at the desk of Dr. Patti Gabow who has to pull out all tools, all skills and leadership to address this issue and address it very fast," said Hancock.

The widow of the 44-year old victim also believes something needs to change.

She told 7NEWS, "To me there're red flags already up in the air. How many more events have to happen before a change is put in place?"

Denver Health maintains the response to Vickie's husband was appropriate under the circumstances, however, in response to federal requests the hospital will double the number of ambulances on the streets during the DNC.

A few days after Kovaleski's questions regarding ambulance coverage at DIA, Denver Health announced it will add another ambulance to the daily fleet.

The hospital does not have an ambulance stationed at the airport.