Early the morning of June 1, Iolan Elvin Nelson told Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning, an ambulance carrying his son went on a round-about journey to Via Christi hospital in Wichita.
The ambulance report said arrival time at Via Christi was 1 a.m., but a report from the hospital said it was 2 a.m., Nelson recounted.
“The nurse said the ambulance got lost,” Nelson said.
As redress, Nelson asked commissioners to forgive a $397 ambulance transport bill.
“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Works said.
Later in the meeting, commissioners met in executive session for 10 minutes with ambulance director Jason Nelson, and, after reviewing dispatch logs for that morning, noted the ambulance returned to Allen County at 2:50 a.m. They also pointed out that information from the hospital said the start time for the younger Nelson’s stay was 1:52 a.m., allowing that was not necessarily when he and the ambulance arrived at the hospital.
Jason Nelson said it would have been physically impossible for the ambulance to have arrived at the hospital shortly before 2 a.m. and have been back in Allen County by 2:50.
Even so, he said the ambulance did “take a wrong turn” during the trip, which probably added 20 minutes or so.
The ambulance left Allen County Hospital on a non-emergency run, without flashing lights and siren, at 10:37 the night before, which would have made it arriving at Via Christi two hours and 23 minutes later with 1 a.m. arrival.
“It usually takes two hours on a non-emergency run,” Jason Nelson said. Also, “time seems longer when a loved one is involved,” in a transfer or any medical situation.
“It was an honest mistake, and mistakes happen,” Works said, adding that there was no reason to have any concerns about dispatch records of the ambulance’s return to the county being falsified.
Commissioners took no action on Elvin Nelson’s request for canceling the transport bill.
