Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Homeless people using 911 as a taxi

So its January and yes it is cold outside. 911 is requested from a payphone be a man that states he is cold and he needs to go to the ER to get warm.

The ambulance arrives and picks him up for a ride to the ER.

One minute later another 911 call comes in 1 block away for a woman in respiratory distress. The ambulance responding to the respiratory distress call is 9 minutes away.

Now lets imagine that the respiratory distress patient is your mother. This is where the moral and ethical questions comes in.

Do you dump the homeless guy back on the street and go to the respiratory distress or just take the homeless guy to the ER and hope the respiratory distress person is OK?