Reader appalled by Meigs County 911 policy

Dear Editor,

This is a letter to all citizens of Meigs County who rely on the county EMS for transportation to the hospital when you are really ill. I have lived in Middleport all my life, up until almost two years ago due to a life-threatening illness, on top of being a paraplegic.

I’ve always been a very independent person, living alone, taking care of myself. Since June 2011, I have been in and out of the hospital eight times and have been having to stay with my sister in Middleport. All except two of those hospital stays I have been able to go to the hospital by private vehicle. One time, because I had no other choice, I had to go by ambulance and had to wait in the emergency room for several hours. My doctor told me from then on if I was that sick to call her and she would have me “directed admitted.”

That’s what leads me to this letter.

On December 28, I was so sick I hadn’t really ate anything for about a week. The home health nurse came that day and said I needed to go to the hospital. She called my doctor. She would set this up as a “direct admit” so I didn’t have to wait in the emergency room.

I’ll bet if you are like me, you didn’t know that if you are a “direct admit” patient that Meigs EMS will not transport you. That’s their policy! I would like for someone to explain this to me, because if they transport you to the emergency room, they take you there and leave. If you are a direct admit they transport you to the hospital, take you to your room and leave.

So we had to call Life Ambulance out of Gallia County, which ended up taking another hour because they had to be faxed paperwork saying I was a direct admit from my doctor.

I felt compelled to make Meigs County residents aware of this fact, because not all people have the good fortune of having family members they can rely on.

Nina Stiles Craddock

Middleport, Ohio