Bickering between sheriff’s deputies and firefighters over which agency should conduct air rescues in Orange County has led to delays in getting injured people to hospitals, raising concerns that the running feud could impair medical care and put taxpayers at risk of unexpected legal payouts.
In one 2016 incident, detailed in a letter by the county’s Emergency Medical Services director obtained by The Orange County Register, a conflict between sheriff’s deputies and Orange County Fire Authority paramedics delayed the transport of an elderly woman with a serious head injury. The woman required emergency neurosurgery at an area trauma center.
The patient suffered “subsequent disability,” according to the Jan. 10, 2017, letter to the Orange County Sheriff’s Dept. The medical director didn’t say whether the delayed transport contributed to that outcome.