Ambulance Service Responds About Response Times After Man's Death

An ambulance company is responding about its response time after a 46-year-old father in North Haven died from a heart attack in August.

Kara Keating said it took more than 20 minutes for the American Medical Response ambulance to arrive at the home on Potter Road after her 20-year-old son called 911. around lunchtime on Aug. 3.

“What happened here on Aug. 3, was a perfect example of when there’s a dire emergency in town and all your resources are used,” Keating said, “there’s no one left to help you.”

Town officials said there were five incidents that North Haven firefighters could not respond to on that day because of a significant fire.

In a previous statement, AMR’s Regional Director Chuck Babson said records showed that 7 minutes and 32 seconds passed from the time the call came in until the ambulance arrived. Babson released another statement on Sept. 26.

“We take our responsibility to, and partnership with the town of North Haven very seriously, and were concerned to hear that our response time on one particular call was inaccurately reported to town officials and residents.

“Our dispatch times in North Haven are under three minutes for over 96 percent of life threatening calls, and under six minutes for 100 percent of non-life threatening calls. The day of the call to Potter Road was extremely busy for first responders across North Haven. In addition to the fire, to which AMR sent three ambulances and one fly car, from 10:10am to the time of the Potter Road call at 12:34pm, AMR was responding to six additional calls.

“Still, our records show that from the time AMR received the call to Potter Road to the time of arrival on scene was 7 minutes 32 seconds. During this time, AMR was on the phone with the 911 caller, talking him through CPR and we remained on the line until help arrived.

“AMR and other first responders play an integral part in providing safe and efficient responses to medical emergencies and on the day in question, the EMS system worked as designed. We hope to work with the North Haven fire department and town officials to understand what happened in this situation and how we can all work better together to improve any discrepancies in service and record reporting, while continuing to provide exemplary medical services to the residents and visitors of North Haven.”

Keating said she and her son checked phone records. She tells NBC Connecticut that under 8 minute response time was not the case.

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