By Melissa Mcever, The Brownsville Herald, Texas
Aug. 3–The floodwaters in the canal behind Solara Hospital in Brownsville rose perilously during Hurricane Dolly. Water rose so quickly that officials at the long-term care facility feared the building would flood and that the hospital’s power would go out.
So Patricia Dye, director of community education at the hospital, called for an ambulance to transfer some of the hospital’s most critically ill patients — the ones on ventilators — to Valley Regional Medical Center, just across the street.
No ambulances came. Officials at Brownsville’s emergency-medical services department told Dye the winds were too strong and the waters rising too high.
Eventually, the storm subsided and the hospital never lost power. But Dye said she doesn’t understand why the ambulances wouldn’t risk it.
“What’s the alternative?” Dye said. “Isn’t there some other vehicle, some other way?”
The region’s emergency medical service providers say they must protect their paramedics by shutting down their services, except in major emergencies. Putting the medics in peril doesn’t help patients, said Brownsville Fire Department Chief Lenny Perez. The city’s EMS program is part of the fire department.
“It’s not good for responders to get themselves hurt — it defeats the purpose of what they’re here for,” Perez said.
Brownsville stops sending out ambulances during a storm once wind speed hits 65 miles per hour, Perez said. At that point, the ambulances are prone to being tossed around or tipped over in the wind, he said.
At South Texas Emergency Care Foundation, which provides EMS service to Harlingen and several cities in Cameron County, ambulances stop going out when winds reach approximately 50 miles per hour, said Rene Perez, director of transport services. Valley Air Care, the region’s air-ambulance service, doesn’t venture out in high winds.
Strong winds just pose too much danger for the average ambulance, which is top heavy because of its extra head room, said Jaime Castillo, supervisor for Pro-Medic EMS, which provides service to Donna, Alamo, San Juan, San Benito, Edcouch-Elsa and other cities in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. The company stops sending out ambulances when winds reach 35 miles per hour, he said.
“Anything above 35 miles per hour can change the direction of the vehicle and cause a collision,” Castillo said. “We’ve had reports that during a hurricane, (the ambulance) will literally tip back and forth.”
In a crisis, emergency medical technicians and paramedics will sometimes take a fire truck, which is sturdier during a storm, officials said. Or fire trucks will escort an ambulance by staying alongside it, protecting it from the brunt of high winds.
Emergency responders with South Texas Emergency Care Foundation decided to risk the storm when a 17-year-old boy fell off a balcony on South Padre Island during Hurricane Dolly, STEC’s Rene Perez said. But the ambulance had a fire truck escort.
Although generally the ambulances stop transporting once high winds hit, the responders make exceptions in life-threatening situations, Perez said.
“Every call is different,” he said. “We have to look at what the weather is doing at that point in time.”
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