Woman believes delayed ambulance may have cost her brother his life

COLUMBUS -- Joyce White believes that if an ambulance would have had open access to her brother’s southside home when his heart failed he would be alive today.

James “Big Jim” H. McKee Jr., White’s brother, lived on Sixth Street near 12th Avenue in 1997. Just after midnight on Aug. 11, 1997, he began feeling ill -- the onset of a heart attack.

He called his sister who lived across the street. She called 911, and an ambulance was dispatched.

She listened for a siren piercing the summer night air but heard nothing. She called 911 a second time and was told the ambulance was delayed because of a train. McKee, she said, died on the way to hospital.

White said she wonders what might have been had the ambulance arrived sooner ... if her brother would have had a greater chance for survival.

“I always believed if a train wouldn’t have been there, the ambulance would have got there sooner and there is a chance he might be here today,” she said. “We lost our brother, he was the closest thing to me.”

According to the American Heart Association:

n Brain death starts to occur four to six minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest if no critical care is received.

n A sudden cardiac arrest victim’s chances of survival falls 7 to 10 percent for every minute of delay.

n Few attempts at resuscitation are successful if critical care is not provided within minutes of collapse.

n About 75 percent to 80 percent of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home.

White does not want other people to face the lingering questions she has. She is advocating the passage of the current proposal for viaducts at Third and 12th Avenues.

“People have to realize if help to the south side is halted by a train, precious time is lost,” she said, creating a delay that could mean life or death.

According to Police Chief William Gumm, emergency response delays of fire department and police department services are a weekly occurrence.

“If it’s a report of a stolen bike it’s not a big deal. If it is a crime in progress, medical emergency or fire, it is,” Gumm said.

One of the potentially more serious instances was detailed in a Feb. 3, 2007, e-mail from the police chief to city officials. The e-mail provided to The Telegram said:

“In the interest of police officer (and citizen) safety, WE NEED ADDITIONAL VIADUCTS. At about 2:30 this morning, the Police Department received a report of an armed robbery in the area of Ag Park.

“The two nearest police units responded -- one located the victim fairly quickly and, as the second unit responded, he located the suspect vehicle fleeing the area -- with THREE suspects.

“The officer initiated a felony stop and then had to wait about 5 minutes waiting for backup. Backup officers were delayed by a train passing through town -- officers had to race the length of the railroad or back track to find a crossing that wasn’t blocked.

“Felony stops are high risk traffic stops -- they are not traffic stops of a little old lady with a broken headlight -- guns are out and pointed at people. In order to control the situation, we want to overwhelm the suspects with a show of force and take them into custody as quickly as possible. The longer the situation remains static, the more likely one of the suspects may think that they can either escape or attack the officer. If someone had sneezed this morning, we could have either had an officer assaulted or a suspect shot!

“We need viaduct access to best serve the public, and protect our officers.”

Gumm said such instances are at least an annual occurrence.

Fire Chief Dean Hefti said train delays can extend response times by a couple of minutes by a fire truck or ambulance being forced to reroute to the 33rd Avenue viaduct.

“By going west to travel to the eastern part of town ... our response times are going to be two to three minutes longer because we have to go to 33rd Avenue to get across if there is a train,” Hefti said.

He said Third and 12th Avenue viaducts would allow a new routing map to efficiently access areas in the south side.

Some have argued that viaducts would limit the access points for emergency responders because of the chance traffic congestion on the two-lane viaducts would prevent the emergency vehicles to pass.

Gumm said he does not see that as a problem.

“Even if it’s single lane each way there is still room in the middle for us to go,” he said. “They will not be a hindrance, (but rather) the viaducts will be used as a matter of course rather than surface crossings.”

Gumm has publicly advocated for passage of this proposal and said he will maintain his support for additional viaducts until they are constructed.