Ohio Ambulance Breaks Down During Response; Patient Dies
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Update: Ohio Officials Say Ambulance Didn't Stall During Fatal Call
AKRON, Ohio --
A man died over the weekend in Akron after a car hit his scooter and then the ambulance responding to the emergency broke down.
The ambulance arrived at Archwood Avenue within a few minutes after the crash.
The victim, 26-year-old Terrance Owens, was tended and placed inside the ambulance. But then the ambulance stalled.
"From what I understand is that they had a problem. The police had to give the ambulance a boost and it took a long time for them to get the ambulance started to get him to the hospital," said the victim's mother, Gwen Owens.
Gwen Owens' daughter, Mary, was also riding on the motor scooter when it was hit by a car last Friday night.
Mary Owens was transported by a working ambulance and is angry about what happened to her brother.
"A few minutes, give or take, might have saved him. I'm not saying it did or didn't, but a few minutes. If that thing wasn't running properly, they should have never brought it out," she said.
Raenetta Brown, who lives across the street from where the accident took place, said it took about five minutes to get the ambulance started again after it stalled.
The question is whether that five minutes would have saved the victim's life.
Fire Chief Larry Bunner said that patient care was ongoing and that medics were working on Terrance Owens the entire time that the ambulance was down and weren't ready to leave by the time the ambulance was restarted.
The ambulances have anti-theft devices that allow the medics to remove the keys but leave the units running.
In this case, a firefighter got in to drive the unit to the hospital and shut it off when he hit the brake pedal. It wouldn't restart with the key, so they called for another unit but had the current one working before the other arrived.
Bunner said patient care was never compromised.
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