Emergency Workers Responded Properly Kootenai County Reviews, Oks Actions In Transporting 455-Pound Man

Emergency workers had an extra complication to deal with last month as they struggled to move Jon Hall into an ambulance. The Hayden Lake man weighed 455 pounds.

Extra workers were called to help move the 50-year-old Hall, who became ill and died Dec. 10.

The sloped driveway to his Hayden View home was covered with ice and after emergency workers lifted Hall into the ambulance the vehicle wedged itself in the snow.

“If you had to write a script you couldn’t write anything worse,” Kootenai County Commissioner Dick Compton said Tuesday.

County officials say emergency workers acted appropriately as they tried to get the man to the hospital, where he died.

At a press conference Tuesday, they defended themselves against accusations that county politics could have cost Hall his life.

According to dispatch records, an Arrow Ambulance unit was called to Hall’s home at 12:22 p.m. and arrived at 12:33. A Hayden Lake Fire Department ambulance also arrived at the scene two minutes later.

Hayden Lake Fire Department officials say they offered to let emergency workers use their ambulance to transport the patient after the Arrow Ambulance got stuck.

But the paramedic on scene refused to use that ambulance and instead called another Arrow Ambulance to the scene, said Hayden Lake Fire Commissioner Wayne Johnson.

Johnson said he believes the paramedic refused to use their ambulance and endangered Hall’s life because of county politics.

Arrow Ambulance has a contract with the county to be the sole emergency transport service. But Commissioner Bob Macdonald said the lead paramedic on the scene has a right to use other resources - such as the Hayden Lake ambulance - if no Arrow Ambulance is available.

The Kootenai County Emergency Medical Services advisory board reviewed the entire incident and released its findings Tuesday.

Ray Mobberley, chairman of the advisory board, said emergency workers did not move Hall into the Hayden ambulance because the gurney he was on would not fit.

Johnson admits the gurney did not fit but said the emergency workers should have switched Hall to the Hayden gurney and then put him in their ambulance.

But Mobberley said the slippery driveway and Hall’s large size would have made it extremely difficult for workers to safely shift the man from one gurney to the other.

But Hayden Lake officials still insist Hall could have been safely switched from the stuck ambulance to the Hayden Lake ambulance by backing them up to each other.

“It’s real easy to sit here in a nice warm environment and second guess,” said Commissioner Mike Anderson. “The paramedic made a good decision.”

It took seven minutes for the second Arrow ambulance to arrive and seven minutes to transfer him into the vehicle, according to the committee’s report.

According to the physicians on the advisory board, Hall would have died even if he had arrived at the hospital earlier.

Emergency medical officials would not reveal the cause of Hall’s death.

Family members also declined to reveal the cause of death, although his sister said earlier reports that he died from a heart attack were not accurate.

The controversy has caught Hall’s family off guard.

His sister, Shirley Holmes, said family members are consulting a lawyer but would not say how they felt about how emergency workers handled his case.

“We’re trying to sort some things out,” she said.