When the public found out that a patient was forced to the sidewalk on Norton Street and left to collapse on the ground, it raised immediate concerns. “Flabbergasted” was the word Rochester Mayor Malik Evans used to describe his feelings.
A longer-term question swirled in the community, too: Would Rochester EMS serve residents better if it was run by the city and not a contractor?
In the incident that recently came to light, a Black Rochester man struggling to breathe was made to leave an ambulance in north-central on Nov. 30, not far from one of the city’s “neighborhood service centers.” EMT workers from contractor AMR claimed he was being unruly. In the video of the incident, the patient told them he was just trying to find air. What happened in the ambulance is not clear.
The man collapsed on the sidewalk and was left unaided for more than two minutes. He died in the hospital two weeks before Christmas, although the cause of death hasn’t been shared.
The Rochester community has been doing soul searching since the tragedy was made public. Questions about services for citizens and about the contractor, under fire in some other parts of the nation, appear likely to persist.