Atlanta resident concerned over ambulance response times

ATLANTA - An Atlanta taxpayer is ready to get behind a call by the fire chief to purchase and run a new ambulance service.

Mridulaa Puri contacted FOX 5 after seeing the report on the concerns raised by Randall Slaughter.

The chief spoke about his firefighters, on more than a couple of occasions, having to wait as much as an hour for an ambulance to arrive at a medical call.

Ms. Puri said that happened to her husband, Surinder. She said he suddenly became ill. The call was placed to Atlanta 911.

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Firefighters were the first to get to the home. She estimates it took around ten minutes.

Where was the ambulance? That is a question she said she asked and so did the firefighters as more than a half-hour came and went with still no transport.

For the portion of Atlanta where the Puri's have their home, a private ambulance company is used. She was told they had to come from the edge of Stone Mountain, a considerable distance away.

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She said her husband had lapsed into a coma by the time he was placed in the ambulance. Later, she would learn her husband suffered from a serious infection.

Slaughter wants city leaders to purchase thirty ambulances to cover all portions of the city.

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