New York, NY – Quinn Praises Hatzolah For Coming To Intern’s Aid When 911 System Failed (video)

New York, NY – Hatzolah stepped up to the plate today when it responded to a desperation call involving the collapse of a female staffer at a morning event in Williamsburg hosted by NYC Council speaker, and Democratic mayoral candidate Christine Quinn.

The NEW YORK POST (http://bit.ly/12uF4jL) reports that Quinn personally called Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, furious that more than a half-hour had elapsed since Quinn staffers originally called 911 with the emergency.

According to witnesses, a female intern from City Council member Diana Reyna’s staff collapsed in a heap during a joint morning press conference in Williamsburg featuring both Quinn and Reyna.

Quinn and Reyna were both seen applying ice to the woman’s forehead and talking to her while awaiting a response to multiple 911 calls that were placed immediately. . NY1 political reporter Grace Rauh, who was tweeting on location, counted down the minutes as the 911 ambulance failed to arrive and she estimated that after 25 minutes, the City Council Speaker took matters into her own hands.

Quinn said her staffers began calling “everyone”, including Commissioner Kelly when an ambulance failed to show up.

But it was a call to her own office that actually brought an ambulance speeding to the scene, as a staffer in Quinn’s office, Howard Pollack, a city liaison for Jewish affairs, heard of the situation and placed a call to Hatzolah. Less than five minutes later, Hatzolah volunteers Joseph Levy and Mutty Klein were at the scene, an estimated 33 minutes after the initial call to 911.

“We were there within three minutes, an average response time for us.” Levy told VIN News. “The patient was stable and we took her to Woodhull Medical Center.”

Levy said that people at the scene, including Quinn, commended Hatzolah for its prompt response time.

“She thanked us for coming and told us we are the best, as always,” reported Levy. “She also told us that if ever need anything we shouldn’t hesitate to contact her.”

Rauh later tweeted that Quinn had announced that the woman, who was suffering from dehydration, had been released from the hospital and was home with her family.

A still furious Quinn called the failure of the 911 system “inexcusable” and “outrageous,” and swore to “get to the bottom of it.”

In an official statement to the media, Quinn expressed her gratitude to Hatzolah and the two members who were at the scene.

“I’d like to thank Joseph Levy and Mutty Klein the Hatzolah volunteers who arrived with an ambulance. The City is indebted to them for everything that they do every day to help New Yorkers in need of emergency medical attention”

City Councilman David Greenfeld also praised Hatzolah in an official statement saying, “The quick and professional response by Hatzolah ambulance crews today is even more impressive considering that it occurred on Tisha B’Av, when its volunteers are in the middle of fasting. This incident reinforced what we already knew – our community is extremely fortunate to have capable and dedicated volunteers looking out for us around the clock. It is important that we find out what caused the FDNY ambulance to be delayed in the first place, but it is also important that we pause to thank these great volunteers for their response today and throughout the year,”

The quick response by Hatzolah members, as well as the devotion of its volunteers, comes as no surprise to Williamsburg community activist Isaac Abraham.

“It doesn’t surprise me that Hatzolah showed immediately after the call was made, even though it is Tisha B’uv, a fast day,” said Abraham, who noted that the Hatzolah volunteers ran out of Shul when the emergency call came in.

Abraham called for a complete investigation into the matter by an independent panel but said he doesn’t believe the City Council will get an “honest response” from administrators as to why the 911 system failed, even after all the “millions” spent.

Mayoral hopeful John Liu said, “911 headquarters is understaffed and the operators are overworked, and the situation has only gotten worse since the city wasted $1B on the flawed E911 system.”

According to NY1, the FDNY released the following statement on the incident:

“Every call for medical assistance is important and ambulance dispatching is prioritized so life threatening calls—for a choking child, cardiac arrest or chest pains—take precedence over non-life threatening injuries—where the patient is breathing, alert and communicating. That was the case here.

In addition, the patient was being treated by a police officer who is an EMT, so care was being administered from the moment the incident occurred. The call was appropriately tagged as not being a high-priority, life-threatening call.

Additionally, some ambulances are kept strictly in reserve for life-threatening calls, allowing for them to arrive in minutes, and they are not dispatched to lower priority incidents so they are not occupied when a life-threatening call comes in. With a high volume of calls during extreme heat, a call for a non-life threatening injury with an alert patient being treated by a trained EMT is appropriately not deemed a high priority, which in some cases like this one, means that it takes longer for an ambulance to get to the scene. But it is critical that life-saving resources be prioritized and used for high-priority, life threatening incidents.”