Ambulance refuses to transport Cleveland man shot 16 times
(CNN)Imagine
being shot multiple times, getting first aid from police but then not
having an ambulance willing to take you to the hospital as you slowly
bleed out in a snowy street.
That nightmare scenario was a Cleveland-area man's reality earlier this month.
Ronald
Newberry, 22, was shot 16 times on January 14 as he was pulling out of
his driveway, according to a Cleveland Division of Police report. He
managed to drive about a quarter of a mile down the street before
stopping and ended up just outside Cleveland's city limits, in the
suburb of Euclid, Ohio.
Police found Newberry and gave CPR while they waited for an ambulance -- which never came.
'Our EMS won't come'
In a body-cam video of the incident, police can be heard talking about getting an ambulance.
But
they ran into a problem. All ambulances from Euclid emergency medical
services were tied up with other calls, so they would need to wait for
an ambulance from a city farther away. And Cleveland EMS refused to send
an ambulance because the man, although he was shot in the city, drove
into Euclid.
"Our EMS won't come,"
says one of the Cleveland officers in the video. "They won't come
because it's in your city. Even though it's our victim, they won't
come."
All the while, Newberry pleads with the officers for help.
"Please take me to the hospital," he says in the video. "Please, I'm getting light-headed. I can't breathe."
The
officers, from the Cleveland and Euclid police departments, then put
the man in the back of a Cleveland officer's patrol car and took him to
Euclid Hospital, a two-minute ride away.
Case under review
Newberry
suffered multiple wounds to his chest, shoulders, knees, right hand and
left foot, the police report said. He was later flown by helicopter to
Metro Hospital in Cleveland for further treatment.
His
girlfriend, who did not want to be named, told CNN that Newberry
survived the shooting and was released from the hospital last weekend.
Dan Williams, a spokesman for the city of Cleveland, told CNN in a statement that the case is under review.
"An internal review is being conducted," he said.
A
Cleveland EMS directive from November 2013 states that "a unit may
travel outside of the City of Cleveland boundaries while transporting a
patient to a hospital or while in response to a call."
Euclid
Fire Chief Chris Haddock told CNN that at the time of the incident,
Euclid EMS was dealing with a house fire across town.
"If this had happened in Cleveland near the Euclid town line, without question we would have responded," Haddock said.
"Our
protocols are to transport the patient to the closest and most
appropriate hospital. 16 gunshot wounds would have been a trauma. And we
would have transported to the closest most appropriate trauma
hospital."
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