Sarah Levy
June 26, 2010
Dozens of Detroit Paramedics protested June 25 because they want to be able to come to your assistance in the case of an emergency. Raising signs that said “Save Us So We Can Save You” and “Don’t Get Injured—EMS Can’t Respond,” the Paramedic workers withstood the 90-degree heat in order to raise awareness of cuts that are about to take place that will affect the safety of Detroit as well as anyone who happens to pass through.
Alarmingly, seventy-five percent of the demonstrators had worked all night, their shifts having only ended at 7am, and they would return to another full night on the job at 7pm.
“That’s how big of an issue this is,” said paramedic of 15 years Tim Goodman.
The issue is that in less than a week the city’s Fire Commissioner, James Mack, is planning to cut 75 Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Paramedic positions from the Detroit Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division as well as cut 33 active members—a cut that would leave only 12 ambulances to cover the entire city of Detroit. As it stands, the city only has 24 ambulances available at any time, a total the paramedics say is devastatingly inadequate.
“Some people are actually dying,” said Kent Hammer, one of the paramedic workers. “This can’t go on.”
Hammer explained that the national standard for response time is four minutes—the time it takes for an untreated brain injury to leave permanent damage.
“Our response time is already over 10 minutes,” he said. “And that’s [before the cuts] with 24 ambulances.”
For reference, Detroit is larger geographically than the city of Chicago, although it is less populated. However, Chicago runs 62 paramedics at any time—almost six times more than Detroit will be left with if the fire commissioner gets his way.
One of the paramedics said he has had to drive more than 20 miles to get to a call, and that those in need are often forced to wait for over an hour.
There have already been many cuts that have hindered the ability of the workers to respond in the case of an emergency. Recently five advanced life support units were reduced to basic units, making them less effective. The basic units only include stretchers to transport people, but aren’t equipped with any of the materials to actually treat them.
Goodman said that on top of this, the city already doesn’t have a first response system in place—the system that allows the fire department to come to the scene of an emergency in most other cities before the ambulance can get there.
“Sometimes calls are backed up for four hours and we’re left showing up hours after calls,” said Hammer. “We’ve even had to take other forms of transportation.”
In illustration of the absurdly drastic nature of the situation, the police driving by the demo enthusiastically honked and shouted in support of the protesters—not a typical reaction to street-side protests.
“You know the cops are in support of us because every time they call for us, we’re not there,” said Jim Atkinson, a paramedic of 14 years.
He explained that (for example in the case of a shooting) because the police don’t want to just sit there and watch someone die, they are often forced to handle bloody bodies—something they are not trained to do.
Goodman gave an example to demonstrate the horrifying result of this lack of proper treatment.
“Even when we had 24 ambulances, there was one case—that wasn’t out of the ordinary—where there was a man in critical condition with a spinal cord injury only four blocks away from Medic 17’s quarters. Even four blocks away, we didn’t have anyone available, so the police had to put the man in their car [without any proper medical treatment or handling]. Because the man wasn’t handled properly, his spinal cord was permanently damaged. Now he will never be able to walk again. If we had been able to reach him, we could have handled him correctly and he could have been saved.”
Craig Mancini gave his own explanation for the police solidarity.
“They need us as much as we need them,” he said. “It’s the same with the firefighters. If they get hurt on the job, they want us to be there. That’s why they’re supporting us out here today.”
While a particularly ugly example, the proposed EMS cuts reflect the budget cuts that have been occurring across the nation, in everything from education to affordable housing, even as corporations and banking bandits continue to rake in obscene profits and bonuses. These upside-down priorities were clearly a source of anger among the protesters.
“Lots of administration could be cut, as well as other things that are not necessary,” said Hammer. “But instead they’re cutting the things that are essential.”
According to Goodman, the mayor put out a memo proposing cuts in administration as a way to balance the city’s budget. Goodman said that there are 19 various administrative Chiefs on duty at any time, who are paid lavishly but don’t actually do anything tangible for the citizens of Detroit.
Instead, Fire Commissioner James Mack—who is in the position to make the final decision on the issue—has disregarded the mayor’s proposal and is moving to cut the most necessary positions almost by half starting July 1st. Although both the city council and the mayor say they are opposed to the EMS cuts, neither of them have actually done anything to stand up to Mack.
“We think there’s a deliberate misinformation campaign regarding where they want the cuts to come from,” Paramedic Jesse Rangel said. “The council proposed the cuts to areas that were not essential [but that’s not what the fire commissioner is trying to do].” Rangel said he thinks the city council is placing too much trust in the fire administration and that in return it is deliberately misleading the city administration.
Hence the paramedics took it upon themselves to profile the issue to the community and media. Rangel said the paramedic union has given presentations to various religious groups in the city as well as other community groups.
“People don’t have any clue of how bad things are,” he said.
In fact it’s hard to imagine how things could get much worse. Besides resulting in unnecessary deaths and forcing the paramedics to work insanely long hours, the cuts make it so that any time off from work is emotionally burdened with the knowledge that people are dying because not enough EMTs are on call to save them.
“The moral of the story is, when you’re in town, be careful,” said Rangel.
There is another moral to be gotten out of the story of the EMS cuts in Detroit. And that is that as long as profit is the driving force of society and carries the most weight in deciding what is necessary for a community, the lives of regular people will continue to be completely disregarded. Detroit shows that this is the case even when those profits compromise the safety of everyone—rich and poor—who could ever possibly get into an accident. And the story shows us how incredibly important it is that we organize to challenge these backward priorities.
Fire Commissioner James Mack can be reached at (313) 596-2901.
