How an Average Dunwoody Citizen Uses EMS

Earlier this spring, my husband was walking my first-grade son to school.
They fell on some broken pavement in the street.
Senior wrenched his ankle.  Junior broke his arm.

Only a couple of blocks from school, a Good Samaritan stopped in the street and took them both to Chesnut ES.

Senior ignored his ankle.  Junior's arm was splinted by the school nurse.

Junior's teacher packed both of them in her car and drove them home.  Senior got Junior into his car and drove them both to the CHOA Scottish Rite ER.

This entire sequence, from initial accident to entering the doors of the emergency center, took just shy of an hour.  That includes the Legendary Rush Hour Traffic on I-285.

In dire need, my husband was willing to get in a stranger's car for the offering.  To this day, we have no idea who this stranger was.  We still look forward to thanking them properly.

At NO time, did any of the people involved think of calling 911 for an ambulance.

Because everyone just knew and accepted that they would take forever, or just not show up.  Meanwhile, a 7-year-old is in agony and in need of a radiologist to define the type of break, a nurse to provide pain control, and a surgeon to pin the bones together.

Yes, we are getting screwed out of our tax money that is paying the contract for these services.  Yes, we have to obey traffic laws while getting to emergency care.  Yes, more often than not, these are lay people providing care until arriving at the hospital and they have to "wing it" more than trained professionals.

With response times stretching north of 30 minutes, it has become common knowledge that jack-leg self-transport is better than emergency services.

The stupidity that includes responses about the "shape" of  Dunwoody and the structure of the contracts don't deserve the time of day from the tax payers.  We're too busy taking care of each other when we need aid.

Further commentary from Councilman Nall when asked about sharing services with Fulton and/or Sandy Springs:

Had my family been closer to the Fulton line, they might have considered this advice.

And Dunwoody's detractors wonder why we incorporated as a city and continue to demand city-operated services.  This is why.