Winter Storm Delays 9-1-1 & Emergency Response for Infant

In this Dec. 28, 2010 file photo a street in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn, N.Y., remained unplowed two days after snow fell across every corner of the city. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Editor’s note: On Jan. 5, New York City offlicials announced that Chief John Peruggia of the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Service was demoted in the wake of criticism over how the city’s EMS and sanitation workers performed during last week’s snow storm. According to a New York Times article, “As of Wednesday, ambulance delays related to the snow were seen as possible factors in at least three deaths.” Click here to read more about this development.
By Annais Morales, John Doyle and Leonard Greene, The New York Post
New York City — A 3-month-old Queens boy was left brain dead last night after snow-clogged routes prevented medics from reaching him quickly — and unplowed streets later forced the EMS workers to ditch their ambulance and sprint with the ailing baby to the hospital.
As little Addison Reynoso hovered at death’s door, a priest performed last rites, and his family considered pulling him off life support.
The baby’s heartbroken father fumed at the city’s lax clean-up response to last weekend’s monster blizzard.
“Clean the streets,” Luis Reynoso said, “because that’s why the ambulance came too late.”
On top of the half-hour it took rescuers to get Addison to the emergency room, family members and friends said they were forced to call 911 several times before they could even reach a dispatcher.
“The weather hampered our efforts,” an FDNY source said, hours after Addison – apparently suffering from a respiratory infection – was declared brain dead. “The snow did impact this.”
Addison was being watched by a family friend in Corona Wednesday afternoon when he suddenly lost consciousness.
The frantic baby-sitter knocked on a neighbor’s door after failing to reach a 911 dispatcher at around 1 p.m. and told the neighbors to call for help. A few minutes later, the boy’s parents arrived, and his father lay the child on the floor and started performing CPR.
Addison’s mom, Rocio Xoyatla, meanwhile, made several 911 calls, but only got a tone. She finally reached a dispatcher at 1:12 p.m., a family friend said.
It took at least 12 agonizing minutes longer for EMS crews to reach the home on 39th Avenue, near 108th Street in Corona.
When they arrived, medics found Luis Reynoso hovering over his dying child, desperately trying to blow life into the tiny lungs of the baby.
Reynoso and his wife sprinted down three flights of stairs with their child and climbed into the ambulance, which slogged two miles through the snowy streets with a police escort.
Then, the unthinkable happened. The ambulance got stuck in the snow on an unplowed stretch at Baxter and Layton streets, just 30 yards short of the emergency room door at Elmhurst Hospital.
EMS workers had to sprint the rest of the way cradling the baby, arriving at 1:42 p.m.
“The main street outside of the emergency room wasn’t cleaned yet,” Luis Reynoso said. “We had to get out of the ambulance and run.”
An FDNY spokesman said the department is still hampered by the blizzard aftermath.
“Without a doubt, we are still dealing with the elements and high call volume,” he said. “We are dealing with snowy roads, icy roads and slushy roads.”
The NYPD said 911 call volume was normal on Wednesday and “[the system] didn’t generate busy signals,” according to spokesman Paul Browne.
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