The Fayette Citizen-News Page

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

EMS defends response time to injured player

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The lack of an on-site ambulance at Friday night’s playoff football game at Sandy Creek High School led to a longer-than-usual response time from EMS medics after a player was hurt.

But a doctor and a certified athletic trainer were on the field during the game, which was likely the reason school officials didn’t ask to have an ambulance on hand, according to schools spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.

Normally, a staffed ambulance is on hand outside the fence just seconds away from the field. But when Patriots senior quarterback Dusty Bennett needed medical attention Friday night, crews had to respond from the nearest fire station, said Capt. Pete Nelms of the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services. It took EMS crews about 10 minutes to get to the field, partially due to the path they had to take, a gravel and dirt road behind the school building, Nelms said.

That road is the best route to the football field and school officials have cooperated with improving access issues at all schools, Nelms said. The response time also was briefly extended when medics responding in a fire truck had to park it on the pavement and ride to the field on the gravel road in the ambulance that responded, Nelms said.

The department has a policy forbidding fire engines to be driven off pavement because they can become stuck easily, Nelms said.

Previously published reports erroneously indicated that it took 23 minutes for medics to reach the field, Nelms said.

“We certainly dispute that time,” Nelms said.

Although officials couldn’t comment on Bennett’s injuries, they were not believed to be life-threatening.

The school system usually requests the department to have an ambulance at the game, but no request was made for the playoff game, Nelms confirmed. A deputy chief for the department also left a message for the schools staffer in charge of scheduling the ambulances but the phone call wasn’t returned, Nelms added.