A Nanakuli mom who questions the route an ambulance took to get her son to a hospital wants some answers and accountability from the state’s emergency medical services system.
On Thursday, Patty
Kahanamoku-Teruya testified before the state Legislature’s House Health Committee and called for a comprehensive, independent review of the emergency medical services system.
Not only should the state have a reliable, efficient system, she said, but it should ensure that all personnel are adequately trained, funded and equipped.
“I believe that government has a responsibility to
adequately equip our Emergency Medical Services system to improve the ability to save lives and properly navigate to a medical facility,” she said. “It is unacceptable to have
a shortage of ambulances or ambulances that are old, with high mileage and engine complications, or employees that are stretched too thin with overtime due to the shortage of staff.”
The committee Thursday recommended the passage
of Senate Bill 281, amended as Keo’s Law, which calls for the state to conduct such a review at an estimated cost of $50,000.
State Rep. John Mizuno, chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, said he thought the evolution of the bill worked out well and was timely. It goes to the finance committee next.
“I anticipate this bill will have a strong chance of passing,” he said. “How impactful it was to have a mom come in and talk about her son.”
On Feb. 15, Kahanamoku- Teruya’s son, Keo Kahanamoku Aiwohi, died unexpectedly.
He was on his way to her home in Nanakuli when he felt unwell, got out of the car near a friend’s house a block away and collapsed. The friend called 911. She rushed to the scene, and will never forget the events that unfolded that day.
“We waited forever, forever, for the ambulance to come,” she said. “When they came, I didn’t even have the opportunity to go in the ambulance to be with my son. I’m not sure why. I think that could have made a difference.”
She suggested that the ambulance take her son to Waianae Coast Comprehensive Center, which was about five minutes away. Instead, the ambulance made the trek to The Queen’s Medical Center West in Ewa Beach.
She followed behind, feeling as if it was the wrong call.
“They went all the way to Ewa, which took a really,
really long time,” she said. “I prayed, I pushed my horn, I was trying to help get traffic out of the way. It took a long time from Nanakuli to Ewa.”
Her son experienced cardiac arrest and could not be revived despite resuscitation efforts, she said.
Just three days earlier, on Feb. 12, Kahanamoku-Teruya said, a young man in Nanakuli was having breathing problems, and an ambulance was unable to get to him in time due to mechanical problems and he died.
While she is still seeking EMS records on the exact turn of events on Feb. 15,
Kahanamoku-Teruya is determined to turn a tragedy into positive change for her community.
She described her son as a happy-go-lucky kind of person who loved his family. He was the father of 10, with the youngest being 4 months old and the eldest in college.
The bill also seeks more than $30 million in appropriations for personnel costs and other expenses needed for emergency medical services for the next two fiscal years, which include the continued operation of three new ambulances.
The last time a review was done by an outside agency was in 1991, 28 years ago,
according to Alvin Bronstein, Emergency Medical Services branch chief for the state Health Department.
“We do recognize it needs to be done,” he said.
The review would evaluate the entire EMS system, including staff, ambulances and hospitals in all the counties.
Kahanamoku-Teruya, also a member of the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board, said the Waianae Coast, which has its share of drownings and accidents, is “like the forgotten rural area” with its own challenge, particularly with only one way in and one way out.
But she feels the emergency response system should work efficiently statewide for all people and that it should be a high priority.
“We shouldn’t wait till tragedy happens,” she said.
