Woman dies in Philly airport while waiting for EMS

[crotchitymedic1986]

At the end of the investigation I am sure we will find it was a combination government-stupidity and union-greed issue.

[HERBIE1]

Did no one find this paragraph, from the article sited above, strange?

"As Smith tried to comfort and reassure Mrs. Moore, four police officers worked in "tag team," providing CPR, and repeatedly calling on their radios for medics. At one point, Mrs. Moore gave her cell phone to the officers, asking that they call her husband Timothy."

As well as the fact that no cause of death was reported?

It would appear their airport EMS and local journalism operate at about the same level.

Dwayne

That must have been great CPR- not only ROSC, but good enough to allow the patient to tell the police to call her husband.

This is not strange at all, Dwayne. I've had several people assure me that they were in "cardiac re-rest" before I arrived. LOL

Look, is it tragic this woman died- of course. I'm quite sure the investigation will point plenty of fingers, a hefty lotto settlement will bring the family comfort and justice, a circular firing squad will ensue, and in the end, little if anything will change.

(Can you tell I'm just a wee bit cynical?)

[stcommodore]

Phila international airport has one dedicated medic unit (medic 30) that does about 1,500 runs a year. Terminal E is on the far north end of the airport at the furthest point from the escorted/secure entry point. PIA is at the furthest southwest point in phila as well. There are alot of unanswered questions here, and thus not enough info for any real answers. Within 15-20min of the airport are M19,M3,M37,M11,M23,M43,M14...not that only a bad night everyone could be out on calls but being in the system I havent heard anything of thia incident unless its rather old and just making the news.

[snoopy911]

Commodore, The article states the incident was January 17th. This article was from February, but I did hear about it on the news either the day or a few days after it happened. I guess the second article was due to further investigation into it. Have not heard anything since

[Carl Ashman]

Phila international airport has one dedicated medic unit (medic 30) that does about 1,500 runs a year. Terminal E is on the far north end of the airport at the furthest point from the escorted/secure entry point. PIA is at the furthest southwest point in phila as well. There are alot of unanswered questions here, and thus not enough info for any real answers. Within 15-20min of the airport are M19,M3,M37,M11,M23,M43,M14...not that only a bad night everyone could be out on calls but being in the system I havent heard anything of thia incident unless its rather old and just making the news.

Not to mention Tinicum Twp Volly EMS being about 5 minutes away. With ALS backup from Crozer-Chester at less than 15 mins..... I guess no one likes crossing boundaries. Which is pretty ironic since that's all you ever do from an airport.

Carl.

[stcommodore]

Is there sone type of contract giving PFD coverage for PHL? Because PHL has land outside of the city I'd asume something like that is in place.

[Medic2588]

Don't really know the Philly system.

JFK, and LaGuardia Airports in New York, and Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey, are run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. They have Port Authority cross-trained LEOs assigned to ambulances, and these ambulances respond to most, if not all, 9-1-1 calls within the airport perimeter fences. They can, and are, backed by FDNY EMS, or NYC 9-1-1 system, ambulances at LaG or JFK. I presume they are backed by 9-1-1 system ambulances at Newark Liberty.

I was told all P.A.N.Y.N.J. P.D. officers are trained as Paramedics with New York/New Jersey dual reciprocity, as they operate on both sides of the Hudson, and the trans Hudson River crossings (Hudson and Lincoln Tunnels, George Washington Bridge, Port Authority Trans Hudson [PATH] trains).

Rich - slightly different at Newark... University Hospital EMS runs a dedicated ALS unit at the airport. I don't know if the are allowed all access to the airport (I thought they were). I've only ever dealt with them during the yearly disaster drills and the occasional in-flight emergencies that seem to follow me when I'm coming home from deployments. I don't know why an ambulance wouldn't be allowed to respond outside of the 'controlled' area. It can't be a security issue since most of the ambulances are stationed outside of the terminals to begin with, and you lose all 'sterility' when you transport someone to a hospital.

[Emtpbill]

<br />Is there sone type of contract giving PFD coverage for PHL? Because PHL has land outside of the city I'd asume something like that is in place.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Unfortunately at this time Philadelphia does not play with other squads. Unless it is a MCI , which plans call for surrounding counties 911 and transport squads, Philadelphia has no setup for dispatching out of city squads. I know that in the surrounding counties if it gets so busy that they have exhausted the entire box card, they will call the neighboring counties to see if there is an available 911 squad that can be dispatched. Not in the city though.