NewsLocal News

Actions

St. Louis-area firefighters walk patient to hospital after ambulance failed to navigate icy roads

Posted at 10:24 AM, Feb 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-11 11:24:38-05

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. (AP) — Firefighters in suburban St. Louis gave up on using an ambulance after roads became dangerously icy and instead used a stretcher to walk a patient about a mile to a hospital.

KSDK-TV reports that Maryland Heights Firefighter Shaylor Taetz rushed to Interstate 270 with his partner Sunday after a bus spun around on the freeway. Taetz says they'd almost reached the bus when their ambulance slid on the ice and hit a guardrail.

But the firefighters got to the bus, and the driver was the only person on board. They put the woman on a stretcher, covered her up to keep the sleet off her, and walked her about a mile (about 1.6 kilometers) to a hospital as traffic went around them. Carol Parks, who told 41 Action News her husband is also a medic and "they never cease to amaze me," captured a picture of the effort (above).

The woman's injuries weren't serious.