EAST LIVERPOOL, OH (WKBN/CNN) – A police officer in Ohio is demanding answers after ambulances didn’t show up to help a woman with a brain aneurysm, who later died.
Patrolman Jacob Talbott with the East Liverpool Police Department and another officer found a woman unresponsive in an SUV Saturday morning.
"She had a deer in the headlights look. She was staring off and had very labored breathing,” Talbott said.
Talbott called for an ambulance while the officers got the woman out of the car.
"ASI [Ambulance Service Incorporated] originally committed a crew and told our dispatcher they had a crew in route,” Talbott said.
After minutes of waiting, Talbott called dispatch to check on the status of the EMS crew. The answer he received shocked him.
Dispatch said the crew that had originally committed wasn’t coming. The two other local ambulance companies couldn’t come either.
Desperate, the two officers put the woman in their police cruiser. Talbott drove to the hospital while the other officer started doing CPR.
But their efforts weren’t enough.
The woman was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital, where she died Sunday morning.
For Talbott, the news was crushing.
"I was holding out hope, saying a lot of prayers and just asking for a miracle that she'd make it. Finding out that she didn't make it, it's rather tough,” Talbott said.
The officer wants answers from the ambulance companies. He says it’s unacceptable none of them showed up because things may have gone differently if they had.
"I'm not real happy that an ambulance service committed, and then five minutes later, they no longer have a crew available. They didn't even notify us. The only reason we found out is our dispatcher called to check the time,” Talbott said.
Ambulance Service Incorporated did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
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