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There are no public ambulances to respond to road accidents in the island’s largest parish, apart from a vehicle sent by the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) or St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital in violation of routine deployment.
The situation came to the fore last week as police prepared for at least six major gatherings during the “Liberation Days” period (Liberation Day on August 1 to Independence Day on August 6).
During the festival season, as people party and revel, road accidents also increase, with speeding and drunk driving being the main causes.
In a few cases, private ambulance services are used, or St Ann’s Bay Hospital dispatches an ambulance, which is usually used to transfer patients from the hospital to the intensive care unit. However, most motor vehicle accident victims in the parish are either taken to hospital by passers-by or, if available, in the back seat of a police car.
Compounding the crisis, despite the training of firefighters, the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) at the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) St. Ann’s branch remains at a standstill, lacking ambulances and the resources needed to respond to calls.
With some of the most accident-prone stretches of the North-South Freeway and other deadly corridors running through the parish, emergency services officials say a properly functioning EMS system will go a long way in saving lives.
It will also ease pressure on St Ann’s health system, which has seen 23 fatal collisions so far this year, killing 29 people in the parish. There have also been numerous non-fatal collisions and two recent mass casualty crashes that have overwhelmed the St Ann’s Bay Accident and Emergency (A&E) system.
While firefighters are typically the first emergency responders to arrive at incidents in the parish, and they immediately initiate medical procedures, they often face challenges getting victims to hospitals for treatment.
“That’s a discussion for another time,” said Supervisor Anthony Hinds, who asked JFB headquarters last weekend why the parish’s EMS system failed to activate.
However, on Friday, people with knowledge of the situation said many of the victims killed in traffic accidents in the parish would have survived if there had been an effective and well-resourced emergency department.
“Sometimes when there is an accident on the highway, the JDF ambulance comes and takes the injured,” a source close to the fire station told reporters. The Sunday Gleaner.
“But it’s very technical because the JDF has to take a call from the firefighters’ superiors,” the source added, explaining that this often slows down the response.
“The firefighters rushed to the scene and were ready within a minute of receiving the call. But the firefighters were unable to evacuate the crowd,” the source continued. “Some of the firefighters were trained and certified. They even had certificates, but the certificates had expired and the emergency medical services at the St. Ann precinct were still unable to be activated.”
The source questioned authorities’ seeming lack of willingness to activate emergency medical services, noting that the parish has averaged 21 fatal crashes over the past three years and has witnessed some of the most horrific mass casualty incidents in recent years.
“When firefighters go to the scene, a man might have a 70 percent chance of survival. But without proper transportation, he’s dead. Sometimes passersby might say, ‘Throw him in my car,’ and that happens a lot of the time, but by the time they get to the hospital, he’s gone,” the source continued, noting that such cases put a psychological strain on staff.
“Firefighters are on high alert and each response team has trained and certified emergency medical technicians on dispatch. So once an incident is reported, paramedics are immediately on the scene, ensuring top-notch care. The shortfall… is the lack of ambulances needed to sustain life,” the source continued.
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Two Sundays ago, Cardiff Hall resident Jevaughn Hyatt, 30, was rushed to hospital, motionless, with his feet sticking out of the boot of a car. Staff at St Ann’s Bay Hospital’s emergency department lifted his mangled body onto a stretcher and wheeled him into hospital, his head tilted to one side and his eyes barely open.
When the incident happened just after 2am, several people, including the driver of the Toyota Probox, tried their best to convince each other that he was still alive.
“He’s not dead, man. He will survive!” a man shouted, holding his head, while others walked around and watched anxiously.
Hyatt failed to succeed.
In fact, police believe he died at the crash scene long before he arrived at the emergency room after he lost control of the car while turning on the main Lovelands Road in St Ann’s Bay. The car veered off the road and rolled over several times. They suspect he may have been speeding and intoxicated.
Hyatt was one of five crash victims who presented to the hospital that night. Hospital staff said the mood was quiet in St. Ann’s, which they called “the party and accident center of Jamaica.”
Last Friday, staff at the St. Anne’s Bay emergency department expected the “liberation” period to be even busier.
But Tanya Hamilton-Johnson, senior medical officer (SMO) at St. Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital, explains that even the best-laid plans cannot protect against mass-casualty crashes, where multiple cars and patients flood the hospital at once.
Hamilton-Johnson said that because August is historically the busiest month for accident victims presenting to the hospital, hospital staff are prepared to handle any eventuality, even if it means pulling personnel from other departments.
“We worked hard to get blood support because we knew we were in the ‘mass infection zone’ of St. Ann’s Bay and the North Coast. We launched a program to do as many blood donations as possible. Our most recent was on Labour Day, where we collected 78 units of blood,” she explained, adding that one unit of blood can save up to three lives.
“A lot of the blood we collect is used for car accident surgeries, when that blood should be used to treat cancer patients or anemia patients, or pregnant women about to give birth,” Hamilton-Johnson explained. “It uses up resources. When you treat a trauma patient, you use up blood supplies, manpower, lab services, expensive reagents, and I haven’t even mentioned X-rays.”
Hamilton-Johnson told The Sunday Gleaner.
The health department explained that head injuries, multiple fractures of the upper and lower limbs, abdominal and chest injuries caused by motorcycle accidents are common cases in the hospital. In many cases, these victims have to be transferred to other hospitals for treatment.
“Most of these people are under 50, they are young, working people, and these accidents will cause them to lose work time and ultimately their families to lose the necessities of life,” Hamilton-Johnson said.
She revealed that the hospital saw 1,699 victims of motor vehicle accidents in 2019. In 2020, the number of such patients was 1,181 and in 2021, it was 1,143 – accidents she attributed to the coronavirus lockdown.
By 2022, the numbers began to rise again, reaching 1,586; last year, 1,698 people were treated in hospitals for motor vehicle injuries.
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