Friday, June 27, 2008

McKinney’s Craig Ranch has potential 911 problems

By Rodney Williams of McKinneyNews.net

MCKINNEY — What began as a nice Friday night out with friends ended badly for Sue and Gary Simpson and may very well serve as a wake-up call for those living in or visiting Craig Ranch.

Sue and Gary were dining with two other couples at a new restaurant, Cheesecake Amor Cafe' and Wine Bar, in Craig Ranch on the night of June 20, when suddenly, Gary became unresponsive, staring into space and unable to answer Sue. A medical nurse dining in the restaurant heard the panic in Sue's voice and turned around to help. The nurse and others laid Gary on the floor where he lost consciousness for an estimated 45 seconds. The situation quickly escalated, and by that time the staff of Cheesecake Amor had called 911.

"At the time we didn't know what was happening," Sue said. "I thought he was having a stroke or a heart attack."

While unconscious, Gary vomited twice, the second time after being rolled over on his side. He regained consciousness but was dazed and confused. In the meantime, Sue and her friends anxiously awaited the EMS response team. According to those present, another call was made by a Cheesecake Amor employee to find out where the unit was, what was taking so long. According to one witness, two men took up position outside the restaurant and down the street thinking the EMS crew couldn't find the location.

"There was another person eating there who was an EMS person, and she was getting extremely upset about why it was taking so long," Sue said. "It seemed to me that it took at least 20 minutes for them to get there."

That's close, according to the official report. McKinney Assistant Fire Chief Frank Roma confirmed for McKinneyNews.net that the emergency response team took 19 minutes, 16 seconds to get to the location. This timeline is in part verified by at least one person on scene. Greg Smith, dining at the restaurant, kept the time at the nurse's request so that she could accurately tell EMS how long Gary had been down. According to Smith, it took at least 17 minutes from the time of the first call for EMS to arrive.

The nurse, who works in the McKinney health care system and asked to not be identified by name for this story, expressed her concern over the delay.

"It took so long that if I had to administer CPR that amount of time I wouldn't have been able to do it," she said.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Unfortunately for Gary, he got caught in a perfect storm of circumstance. Part of this is bad timing: at the time of Gary's collapse McKinney firefighters and emergency personnel were dealing with a fire which eventually destroyed a two-story home in Westridge. Instead of the call going to the nearest station - which, in this case would most likely have been Station 3 on Eldorado Pkwy - the call went to Station 2 on Community Ave., across from Collin College, across town.

The other part of this equation is, unfortunately, economics. The City of McKinney does not have a fire station located inside Craig Ranch. The need is there, but the funding isn't.

"We have a clear need for a station in Craig Ranch," Roma said. "But we can't create dollars today to correct a situation yesterday."

What Roma is referring to is the cost of building a station. The land would have to be purchased, a fire engine and ambulance would have to be bought and a minimum of six would be needed to staff the station. That's money that hasn't even been budgeted by the City.

So, what does this mean for those who live, work and play in Craig Ranch? It means they can expect emergency response times to be double what they are in the rest of the city. Roma indicated the benchmark time - the goal - for an EMS response is four to six minutes. The standard response time for a call out to the Craig Ranch area is 8-10 minutes. The near-20 minute response time in the case of Gary Simpson didn't sit well with Roma.

"That is not acceptable to me, but that is the reality in certain parts of town," he said. "We are spread pretty thin. Even with seven [stations], we are still three to four stations down from optimum."

The McKinney Fire Department has 150 firefighters and is in the process of hiring 20 more. These men and women operate out of six stations, while a seventh is under construction at Independence Parkway and Westridge and is scheduled to open in January of 2009. Six of the seven stations are equipped with both fire engines and ambulances, the lone exception being Station 4 on Industrial Blvd., which is equipped only with an engine.

In an Insurance Services Office report (an examination and classification of the City's emergency services) issued by Public Protection Consultants out of Mesquite, the findings were clear. The report stated that examiners had found "Inadequate number of Fire Stations due to rapid and widespread development. Presently, 4 additional Fire Stations are needed (for a total of 10 Fire Stations) in order to reduce excessive response times to new developments and to keep pace with record community growth trends."

Examiners further stated that at least five additional fire stations will eventually be needed near the intersections of: Independence Pkwy and Rose Garden Dr., Stonebridge Dr. and Eldorado Pkwy, Alma Rd. and Collin McKinney Pkwy, White and Hardin Blvd., and University and Grassmere Blvd.

The report also stated a need for an average of five dispatchers plus one supervisor at all times. The City of McKinney, as stated in the report, currently has an average of 3.91 dispatchers, including the supervisor, on duty at all times.

In the Simpson case, however, the call center appears to have gotten the call and dispatched it cleanly. Records show the call taken in at 8:31 p.m. and dispatched to "Med Two" at 8:32 p.m. Things get fuzzy after that. At 8:34 p.m. Med 2 checked in en route to the call but didn't show on scene for another 16 minutes. In that period of time there were two more calls to 911, one at 8:43 and one at 8:49 p.m.

"All of us were in the restaurant saying that if he had a heart attack we don't think he would have made it," Sue said.

"We definitely had enough time to stop and reflect on the amount of time that had passed and say, 'Hey, where are they,'" said Katherine Daniels, who was dining with the Simpsons on that night.

THE OUTLOOK

Unfortunately, with the astounding rate of growth in McKinney (one City official puts it at eight percent annually) this situation will not be remedied in the immediate future. While the City's seventh fire station is set to open in 2009, it's clear that emergency services are stretched to the limit. A location has been picked out for a station in Craig Ranch, but that's as far as it goes. The land hasn't been bought and no time line can be set for this much-needed station.

It's also clear that this story very well could have had a tragic ending. The nurse on the scene indicated as much in a phone interview with McKinneyNews.net. Luckily, Gary is alive and well today, having recently returned home from the hospital. He had become dehydrated after golfing earlier that day and suffered a heat stroke at dinner, according to Sue.

Roma, an introspective and caring man, doesn't need to be told twice this was a close call. Ultimately, things out of his control will determine how quickly this situation is addressed for McKinney's citizens. Still, he asks residents to call him at the administration offices at 972-547-2850 regarding concerns they may have.

The question, however, remains: Will this serve as a wake-up call to those who need to hear it, the ones who plan city budgets and allocate dollars for our emergency services? Or will it take a fatality to open the eyes of the City's governmental movers and shakers?

Sue Simpson hopes its the former, not the latter.

"It's frightening to think of what could happen if it was a child in a pool or some other scenario," she said. "I don't even want to think about it."

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