Is 18 minutes too long to wait for an ambulance? Investigation continues into response for dying Wake man

Steven Tibbetts, 63, complained of chest pain and weakness in his legs on the morning of April 5, according to a report from the Fuquay-Varina Police Department. James Pasternak, Tibbetts' son-in-law, began driving him to a nearby hospital, but his condition worsened, and he pulled off the road to call 911.

That’s where the clock starts ticking.

Pasternak says he called 911 at 7:57 a.m., from his car. He pulled into John Heister Chevrolet on Main Street in Fuquay-Varina to get help at 8 a.m. and stayed on the phone with 911 until 8:14 a.m.

Officials with the City of Raleigh, home of the Raleigh-Wake 911 center, confirmed Monday that they took a call at 7:57:50 a.m. on April 5.

Phillip Allen, a Heister Chevrolet employee, noticed there was a medical emergency and said he called 911 between 8:08 and 8:10 a.m. He then ran outside to help.

"What in the world is going on? Is he OK? What's wrong? What do we need to do to help?" Allen said.

An employee and a customer were performing CPR on Tibbetts.

"The two of them were going back and forth trying to revive him," Allen said. "They said they thought that the gentleman standing outside was on the phone with 911. I dialed it anyway out of instinct."

It appears that it was Allen's call that got a response. Wake EMS arrived at 8:15 a.m., four minutes after his call. Tibbetts was taken to UNC Rex Healthcare, where he was pronounced dead.

The Raleigh-Wake 911 center uses computer dispatch terminals to send first responders out as the calls come in.

Wake EMS is prevented under medical privacy laws from talking about specific calls, but Assistant Chief Jeff Hammerstein said that protocol is to respond to an emergency as soon as they are dispatched. Cardiac arrest calls are prioritized.

"So, that's the highest most critical level. That certainly gets a lights-and-sirens response. It includes a fire department first responder. It also includes multiple resources from EMS to work with that issue," Hammerstein said.

"So, when we receive the call, we acknowledge it by entering on that computer which marks the time we're en route, we mark that time again when we arrive to make the time we're arriving," Hammerstein said.

Hammerstein could not comment on the delay between Pasternak's initial call and the ambulance being sent.

Allen had an emotional meeting with Tibbetts' family after his death.

"They were very grateful. They said he had lived his life the way he wanted to. I felt bad for them. I felt bad for their children and was really wishing we could have done more," Allen said.

Tibbetts' family was not aware of the amount of time between the first 911 call and the arrival of EMS until WRAL told them. They said they are consulting with an attorney.

Officials with the City of Raleigh told WRAL News that one emergency communications tech recruit at the 911 center did leave his job on April 9, four days after the incident.