Officials with Curtis Ambulance and the Milwaukee Fire Department are defending the actions of the private EMS crew after a woman died of hypothermia, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The leader of the city’s ambulance board said he thinks it is “pathetic” the crew did not get out of the ambulance to check for the woman.
The crew members will not face discipline, officials said at a Tuesday press conference.
“They didn’t do anything wrong. The EMS system here worked as designed,” said James Baker, president of Curtis Ambulance.
According to the report, the ambulance crew drove through the intersection twice, but did not see the 49-yaer-old Jolene Waldref behind a snowbank. Dispatchers called the apparently unconscious woman twice afterward.
Waldref had called 911 herself after she slipped and fell. Her call was first classified with a lower prioritization.
It was not until 22 minutes later two bystanders called 911 at the same time and dispatchers sent a Milwaukee Fire Department. They found Waldref with the callers standing near her body and waved down the truck, according to the report.
