Ambulance Breakdowns Plague Florida Service

March 07--Aly Cassidy, 28, was barely conscious in the back of the ambulance that transported her from her home in Ocala to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville on Jan. 2. About 20 minutes into the 40-minute stretch on U.S. 441, Cassidy heard a dispatcher's voice over the radio ask that another ambulance be sent to replace the one that had just broken down. Cassidy's son, who had just minutes before been delivered prematurely in her home at 20 weeks, was in the first ambulance that had arrived at their home. She panicked, thinking the ambulance with her son in it was the broken-down vehicle.

"The paramedic yelled, 'Is that the truck with their son in it? Did that break down? Find out where they are, and see if we can get to them first,' " Cassidy recalled.

That was the ambulance, and the moment Cassidy knew that, she lost all hope her son would survive.

"We knew it was going to be a long shot for the hospital to save him. Hearing that pretty much diminished any chance that a miracle would save him," she said. "They can only do so much from the back of the truck."

Cassidy's husband, Brian, was focused on comforting her in the back of the ambulance. That was, after all, his job. As a 33-year-old firefighter and paramedic with more than 15 years of experience working with Marion County, from volunteer up the ranks, Brian knew the drill of keeping patients calm. He also recognized an achingly familiar scenario.

"As an employee, I was not surprised. I was in shock," he said. "Things happen and vehicles break down, but the problem is too much; it's getting too bad."

Part of the problem is that the vehicles are old, according to the Professional Firefighters of Marion County Union.

"Forty percent of our trucks have almost 200,000 miles or more," said Ryan O'Reilly, a union member and transport medic. "These breakdowns happen more often than they should."

In the past six months, ambulances have broken down along the side of the road because of mechanical issues -- and had to be towed -- nine times, according to Marion County Fire Rescue.

Just last week, O'Reilly was in an ambulance with a bad diesel exhaust fluid pump. The truck was barely able to accelerate to 50 mph in 30 seconds, he said. "They didn't have any equipment to fix it, and no spare units."

Also last week, another ambulance had an electrical failure that blew its emergency lights and radio dispatch system, he said. It made it as far as the patient, but could not transport him to the hospital, so another ambulance was called in.

"You could find stories like this happening all the time," O'Reilly said.

Marion County Fire Rescue says it has 42 ambulances and that the oldest is 10 years old. The problem with the ambulance carrying the Cassidys' son was an intermittent power failure, agency spokesman James Lucas wrote in an email. It was a 2010 vehicle, without previous mechanical problems.

The rescue squad was able to restart the vehicle, and four minutes elapsed between the breakdown and the restart, Lucas added.

Could those four minutes have saved the Cassidys' son's life? Probably not, Aly Cassidy said. Her son was dead when they arrived at the hospital, and the odds that he would have lived were very low.

But minutes could save the lives of other critically ill people, such as heart attack and stroke patients whom ambulances routinely transport.

"There are a number of things where literally two minutes can make a difference in saving someone's life," Aly Cassidy said.

Vehicle reliability is just one issue that troubles Marion County Fire Rescue and its union. Their main complaint is underfunding from the County Commission, leading to low salaries and a general exodus of personnel to surrounding counties. Last year, Fire Rescue salaries increased by 3 percent, following a six-year freeze in which the starting salary range for a 52-hour workweek was between $22,000 and $29,522, O'Reilly said.

"We're unable to attract people to come here," he said.

Sixty employees have left in the past year, and half have not been replaced.

"We have inexperienced applicants, and we lose guys with six to seven years' experience," O'Reilly said.

The backburner issue, though, is the dearth of funds from tax revenues and fees. Without $3.3 million, the department will be in the negative in 2016, according to Fire Rescue.

"This is having an impact on our response time," O'Reilly said. "If we were properly funded, we would have enough resources to adequately take care of our citizens."

That is also the Cassidys' hope. They received a bill for their son's ambulance, but no explanation or apology for what happened -- things they feel the county should have provided.

They are willing to look beyond that in order to advocate for other patients and the community at large, Aly Cassidy said, adding that an adequate rescue service is essential for a county with such a sizable elderly population.

"There's no price you can put on peace of mind," she said. "Until it hits home, some people don't get it. You don't want it to get that far."

Contact Kristine Crane at 867-4117 or kristine.crane@ocala.com.

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