Facing a shortage of defibrillators for some of its ambulances, the FDNY has canceled regular maintenance on the life-saving machines, the Daily News has learned.
The LifePak 12, a $25,000 defibrillator and cardiac monitor installed in all the department's Advanced Life Support ambulances, used to receive a tuneup every six months, according to FDNY sources.
But on Nov. 18, Assistant Chief of EMS John McFarland abruptly canceled the maintenance program and, in an e-mail obtained by The News, ordered ALS coordinators to "keep all expired LP12s in service."
Though the FDNY yesterday strenuously denied that the change would affect the performance of the ambulances, several EMS sources and unions expressed worry that the cutback could endanger lives.
"Our concern is that as we try to 'stretch' the lifespan of these devices and get further and further from the time when they are supposed to be overhauled, we may have a critical failure," said Patrick Bahnken, president of the Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Fire Inspectors union.
"If the LP12 fails," Bahnken said, "it could cost someone their life."
Paramedics run tests on the LP12 monitors at the start of each shift - but they say they don't know if they can trust the results.
"It's unnerving," said one paramedic who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "If the device is out of date and fails, who is to say its own self-diagnostic can be trusted?"
FDNY sources said the LifePak 12 is an older model of defibrillator and cardiac monitor, and as they break, the department's reserve supply has dwindled.
When a device malfunctions at one EMS station, its replacement now often has to be sent from another borough.
Last month, a Staten Island ALS ambulance was out of service for four hours while a replacement defibrillator was sent from Brooklyn, sources said.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
More on Why Government Run Healthcare Doesn't Work
The FDNY is using expired defibrillators in their ambulances and has canceled regular maintenance on them. This is something that could cost someone their life and if done by a private sector entity would lead to major lawsuits and/or jailtime:
I guess government run health care is going to end up like the government run invasion of Iraq.
ReplyDeleteIt will cost ten times more than projected, will take ten times longer to fix than projected, will result in massive debts that will be passed on to our children, and in the end will benefit few people.
Republicans have got it partly right.
But they are still clinging to the notion that somehow government run invasions of countries are done better than government run health care programs.
Face it. You got the same people running both programs. Why should you expect Iraq to be successful and the health care to be a failure