In Cottage Grove, a woman recently spent two hours waiting for an ambulance to take her to the hospital after a fall, according to South Lane County Fire & Rescue.
She was lying “on the floor for two hours waiting for us to get there because we had nobody to respond,” South Lane Fire Chief John Wooten said in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield, adding that the longer someone remains on the ground after a fall, the more severe their injuries can become.
Wooten said the incident reflects how understaffed the department is due to a lack of funding, noting that emergency calls often overlap, leaving no units available to respond or insufficient staff on hand…