By Dave Statter
STATter911.com

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — Three days after a medic unit was out of service down the street from a cardiac arrest call, the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department has again changed its furlough policy. A revised directive issued today by Chief Lawrence Sedgwick Jr. clearly states, "There will be no Medic Unit that will be placed out of service as a result of furloughs".

On Monday evening, STATter 911 first told you about a cardiac arrest call that occurred in Largo, MD earlier in the day. Medic 846 is stationed a little more than a mile from the home of 74-year-old Lawrence Waller. When Waller's wife, Tennie, called 911 because her husband was having trouble breathing, Medic 846 was unavailable due to the crew being on eight-hours of furlough leave without pay.

A basic life support ambulance responded from the same station as did Medic 820 from the Upper Marlboro firehouse seven-miles away. When the BLS crew arrived, about five minutes after the 911 call, they found Lawrence Waller in cardiac arrest. It was another eight-minutes before Medic 820 arrived.

Tennie Waller confirmed, despite the delay, medics were able to get a pulse from her husband and lose it three times on the way to the hospital. The emergency department at Prince George's Hospital Center worked on Waller for about an hour before pronouncing him dead.

At the time, Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department Chief Spokesman Mark Brady told STATter 911 the call was handled appropriately considering the unavailable medic unit.

Chief Sedgwick's latest directive, provided by Brady after an inquiry by STATter 911, advises, "The Emergency Operations Command has full authority to detail ALS providers from other commands, delay, or temporarily waive planned furloughs in order to ensure that Medic Units stay in service".

From September 28 until yesterday, one or two medic units have been placed out of service each day for eight-hours at a time. In an email accompanying the directive, Lt. Col. Tyrone Wells reiterated, "no medic unit will be out of service at anytime related to furloughs".

Sources familiar with the change indicate Chief Sedgwick has told paramedic supervisors and paramedics assigned to the training academy they will be riding medic units in order to keep the units in service during furlough hours.

We asked Mark Brady if the incident in Largo prompted the change in policy. Brady replied by email, "I stated previously the plan is fluid and has changed numerous times. No, there has been no one incident that was responsible for this change".

A day after her husband's death, Tennie Waller told STATter 911 she thought a faster intervention by paramedics might have made a difference for her husband. Waller was also angry that despite paying "high taxes" the county was cutting important services.

When asked if the change in furlough policy was ordered by Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson or Public Safety Director Vernon Herron, Brady said that Chief Sedgwick has been working closely with the county leaders in Upper Marlboro throughout the furlough planning and implementation.

On September 25, three days before the start of the furloughs, Vernon Herron radically altered the fire department's original plan. It had called for entire shifts of career personnel to be removed from fire stations, effectively closing some firehouses where volunteers weren't available. Herron ordered that stations currently with career staff would not be left without career firefighters on duty.

Due to minimum staffing requirements in the county's collective bargaining agreement with IAFF Local 1619, the department's command staff has struggled to comply with furlough orders and at the same time meet Herron's mandate to keep fire stations open. In order to close a budget shortfall, all Prince George's County employees have been ordered to take 80-hours of leave without pay by next June.

Lt. Col. Wells has scheduled a meeting with volunteer chiefs on October 16 to go over a revised furlough schedule. At their last meeting on September 25, Wells had little information to provide the chiefs. The reason, according to numerous sources, is that the public safety director's order scuttled the original plan just an hour before that meeting.