The nation's busiest airport has its own
fleet of four ambulances, actually five.
But the fifth ambulances usually unstaffed
and held in reserve for only major incidents.
So why is Medic 5 responding to
regular medical calls at ATL?
Because two of the airport's
regular ambulances are gone.
We tracked them down here three states away.
Hartsfield-jackson Medic One and Medic
2 surrounded by weeds in the back.
Lot of an Ohio factory.
Instead of buying new ambulances which
could have replaced the seven year
old units the day they were ready,
the airport decided to send half
its regular EMS fleet for extended
rebuilds out of state.
I don't know what your ETA is that we
need to get this lady of office for.
Here's 76 year old Carol Chapman
tripping over another passengers luggage.
At the main TSA checkpoint in July,
right now we have a female who dislocated
her hip and she's just sitting on
the floor waiting for transport.
You know,
we have since confirmed she actually
had a broken femur requiring extensive
surgery and treatment costing $176,000.
Did you break your leg?
But Chapman was forced to wait 95 minutes
before the airport could find her an
ambulance from another city because
the airports remaining ambulances
were on other calls and the rest of
the fleet was parked 500 miles away.
You know there's questions circling
around our EMS system at the airport.
There's been some slow response rate
in August. Atlanta City Council asked
airport general manager BB Adari about
the EMS delays we had uncovered. We
were told at the time when those two
ambulances went into the shop that
they will only take 90 days to get it.
I get it back in service, however,
because of the disruption of the
supply chain and we were informed
that it would take 180 days.
To get those ambulances back.
But the city knew long before the
airport sent these ambulances to Ohio,
they'd be stuck there
for at least six months.
The reveal investigators obtained
the vendors quote through open
Records in November of last year.
Atlanta's Fire and Rescue Department
was told that each ambulance would
be gone for approximately 240 days,
but that's not what the airport
told council this summer.
Put out of service for for retrofit
would have been returned to us within
90 days, but that was not the case.
Matter of fact that time was doubled
right after our reporting
on Chapman's ordeal.
The airport decided to rent two
older ambulances from Alabama
three months after the medic
units were sent out of state.
Both rented ambulances failed their
initial inspections by Georgia's
Department of Public Health.
The temporary replacement for
Medic One is 19 years old.
The rented Medic 2 is 15 years
old and sat unused for a full
month outside the airport shop
because of multiple issues
including a broken door latch and
the wrong color emergency lights.
Both Alabama units eventually passed
re inspection and are now making
medical runs at Atlanta's airport.
You're here for your son's wedding.
Yes, and his father is not going to be
there. Dad's not here and you
can't fill that spot, ever. Ruth
Lawson returned to Atlanta after moving away,
flying into the same airport
where she watched her husband.
Thomas died from a heart attack
while waiting 22 minutes for
paramedics to show up and start CPR.
Sitting on the airplane.
I was lucky enough to have an
empty seat. And then I went.
I have an empty seat there supposed
to be somebody sitting here Thomas,
that seat will be empty
forever, even if there's another body in it.
It's not the one who's supposed
to be there. All the ambulances were
still at the airport last November,
but the closest rescue station
had already been bulldozed to make
way for five new passenger gates
that was fire
station 32 right there, but it
was demolished by the time you called 911.
You were just on the other side
of this parking garage. Yep.
The new fire Station 32 is under
construction right now and right next to
the very same South economy lot where
Thomas Lawson took his last breath.
The new fire station won't be
opened until the end of next year,
nearly two years too late to
save Thomas Lawson's life.
What questions would you like the
airport to answer that they're not
answering right now to us on the record?
Why the hell did you leave me
sitting out there with no help
for so long watching him die?
How do you feel about it?
If it was your left one,
you were sitting there,
what would you have done now?
You still left me.
With someone who had already
passed away on the ground
just to stand there and stare
at him with 911 in my ear,
having chatter conversation
team that responded to that 911
call got disoriented and took an
extra extra long time to reach that
patient to make patient contact.
So it was not about the location
of our station or where they were
reporting from is just purely
and simply they got lost.
The general manager of this airport
said that. The ambulance got lost
trying to find you and your husband.
I just thought they missed
the entrance to get lost.
Just put salt in the wound.
Attended baggage
there's a new arrival at the
terminal ladder trucks since
we started asking questions.
The airport has begun staging emergency
vehicles with Emds just outside the
main doors for hours at a time by
having rescuers sit in their vehicles
instead of a distant Firehouse.
The average medic unit response
time has dropped below 8 minutes
for the first time in two years,
and the airport has shaved 40 seconds off
the average overall EMS response time.
Since our first story aired
because of the incident in the parking lot,
we are moving forward to hire an entire
cadre of dispatcher who are certified
to do emergency medical dispatching
every 911 dispatcher here could
not give CPR instructions,
and now they can now all of
them will be trained to get pre
arrival instructions that has
got to give you some solace.
It's too late for me.
All of those anonymous faces you
just passed in the airport are safer
because of what you helped uncover.
I keep my fingers crossed the system works.