The Pittsburgh area had received two feet of snow when Curtis Mitchell began calling emergency dispatchers around 2 o’clock in the morning on February 6th. In his first 911 call, he stated that his “entire stomach was in pain” according Dr. Ron Roth. His symptoms were judged to be non-life-threatening.
After two hours with no sign of the paramedics showing up, Mitchell placed a second call. He learned that an ambulance was stuck in the snow near a local bridge. He was asked if he could walk four blocks to meet the ambulance but he said his pain was too severe to leave his home sofa. His desperate cry for help was cancelled because he, the victim, was unable to walk through heavy snow drifts to and ambulance that should have been able to come get him.
It took ten calls to the emergency line 911 and almost thirty hours for paramedics to reach Curtis Mitchell. However, by the time they made it to his home, he was dead.
3 different ambulances were dispatched.
The 3 different ambulances became stuck in the snow/ice.
Each time, the medics called dispatch for help getting to the residence, because they were stuck in the snow.
On the first dispatch, the ambulance became stuck in the snow. The paramedics were canceled. They dug themselves out and went to the next patient.
Another ambulance was dispatched later. Again the paramedics were canceled. They dug themselves out and went to the next patient.
Later, a third ambulance was dispatched. Again the paramedics were canceled. They dug themselves out and went to the next patient.
The paramedics treated and transported almost three times the normal number of patients that day. These paramedics were out working in this storm. The paramedics did not make the decision to not transport Curtis Mitchell. This was not an error by the paramedics.
The review by the medical director did not blame the paramedics.