Brimfield Ambulance arrived, and the Brimfield EMTs immobilized the knee and packed the boy up. It was at least 20 minutes from the time Brimfield arrived till the patient was on the road.
We were on our way to Southbridge almost an hour after the time I called 911. No problem, it was not a serious injury and quite common.
I got in my truck and watched as the driver of the ambulance made a 5 point turn and drove through a huge pothole as she headed out our street towards Mashapaug Rd. I followed so I could be at the hospital to consent to care for my son. We live 15 minutes from the Harrington hospital down I 84 and into Southbridge off exit 1.
From the intersection of our Road and Mashapaug Rd, I 84 is 1 Mile South. To my surprise the ambulance turned north away from Southbridge and started heading back towards Brimfield. I figured the driver was going to take Vinton Road to Rt 15 to avoid traffic jams possible on the interstate and was shocked as the ambulance PASSED Vinton Road and headed over the big causeway in the opposite direction of the hospital accelerating as we went. We passed cars at unsafe speeds as the driver continued on her adrenaline enhanced joyride in the opposite direction putting my son's and the general publics lives and safety at risk.
The Ambulace sped up Sand Hill Road and passed the Holland Elementary School. We raced down Sturbridge road heading more miles away from our destination as the heavy ambulance pushed through the turns and drove on both sides of the road swaying from side to side as we approached 60 plus miles an hour. We arrived at the intersection RT 20 and RT 148 and headed finally east right through the very busy Sturbridge business district crowded with traffic and tourists alike as the sirens blared on the ambulance as the driver roared through red lights while rocketing east in the west bound lane with me in their wake, white knuckled, flashers on, horn blaring. Cars parted and stopped as they scrambled to get out of the path of the blue and white rocket ambulance, driven by another public employee whose only care was the adrenaline rush coursing through her veins as she abused the publics trust.
Up RT 13,1 lights flashing, sirens blaring, we passed the Sturbridge Police station after our 10 mile detour in the wrong direction. Flashing past the lights at Shaw’s plaza we went streaking into the construction zone as if the lives of the workers in the orange zones and drivers of the oncoming traffic were secondary to the adrenaline crazed driver’s need to shave seconds from our extended journey to the Hospital.
THANK GOD nobody was injured before we reached the safety of the emergency room, where the boy was treated quickly for his common minor injury.
Horror stories of carnage and wrecks between responders driving or acting recklessly while responding to minor incidents and innocent citizens injured or killed by public servants operating emergency vehicles on their adrenaline filled "Glory Paths" are more common than they need to be. This experience has left me in more fear for the public from our own workers who practice such conduct while supposedly rendering aid.
The injured boys mother drove without speeding from the Brookfields and arrived at the Southbridge Hospital almost a half an hour before our ambulance screeched to a stop, engine smoking hot with a smell of burned rubber in the air..
There was no need to respond to such a minor injury in such a dangerous manner while putting countless of innocent lives at risk. I am shocked after witnessing this kind of behavior.
I will say that Holland officials do no service to our town when they hire the Brimfield Ambulance Service to do business here. These responders from Brimfield mindlessly took a 10 mile detour in the wrong direction in full emergency mode, sirens screaming, for a minor injury, for no reason whatsoever other than to satisfy their public responders’ syndrome and disorder that can only be described as a “siren and light adrenaline fetish.”
They put a child’s life at risk in the back of their ambulance as well as the lives of countless other citizens who were in their path.
Nobody will take responsibility to address this issue and they will say I am jaded to even mention what happened.
Thank you Peter Frei and the Holland Blog for giving me a public forum to air this complaint and inform the unknowing public of this official miss conduct by public employees.
June 26, 2011, Anonymous