When a person called 9-1-1 on Aug. 8 for help with a stroke victim, it took an EVAC ambulance 58 minutes to get the person from their Ormond Beach residence to a hospital.
Two days earlier, a caller from DeBary dealing with heart problems waited 32 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, records show.
Volusia County Councilwoman Heather Post cited these examples Tuesday as occasions when the county's emergency system failed residents. But those situations are outliers, don't tell the whole story, and shouldn't raise concerns about the overall effectiveness of the operation, said the county's EMS medical director, Peter Springer.
In the wake of mounting criticism about the county's EMS system — including a push by Port Orange to buy its own ambulance — Springer told the council that he's working to address challenges that put a strain on the system, including long wait times at hospital emergency rooms.