VIDEO: The crew on Portland Fire & Rescue's Engine 9 pulled up at Providence Portland Medical Center on Wednesday to meet a man whose life they saved nine days ago.
Brett Kovar had a massive stroke at his home several blocks from the hospital.
“There was no buildup or anything — I looked down and dropped my coffee cup, it split in half and then I just turned and fell backwards,” recalled Kovar.
Fortunately, Brett’s twin brother was there and knew that the family history includes a risk of stroke.
“He tried to get up and crawl to the back porch and I thought, 'I better call an ambulance,'” said Scott Kovar.
But as KGW has been reporting, getting an ambulance right away these days in Portland is not always possible. There are not enough AMR crews, and they're working in an overloaded system.
In fact, thanks to a resource mapping app now used by first responders, this Portland Fire crew knew going in that they didn't have an ambulance available.