PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The crisis of slow ambulance response times in Multnomah County resulted in an unusual TriMet bus rescue involving the fire department.

On Sunday, a medical emergency unfolded on public transport. Things may have taken a traditional route to address the issue if it weren’t for a shortage of nearly 60 paramedics at American Medical Response (AMR), Multnomah County’s ambulance service.

The worsening response times from ambulances is an issue KOIN 6 News highlighted last week in an investigative report. During the early hours of Sunday morning, the problem was so severe that firefighters and a bus driver had to step in as heroes.

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Rick Graves, a firefighter with Portland Fire and Rescue, recalled how his crew in the Lents neighborhood had to think outside the box in the face of a medical emergency.

“I call it a creative win by the crew on scene,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that that was the reality. But we’re tasked with solving problems.”

Around 2:30 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, a 43-year-old man was experiencing chest pains on a TriMet bus near Southeast 94th Avenue and Foster Road. There were no available ambulances, so PF&R responded alone.

“Upon arrival, they recognized there was going to be a significant amount of time to wait,” Graves said.

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Firefighters waited for an ambulance for 20 minutes. However, they realized something more immediate needed to be done in the best interest of the patient. That’s when the PF&R crew decided to use the TriMet bus itself to transport the man to the hospital.

“We had crew members riding on the bus. We had the rescue leading the bus out. So it was a parade of individuals, if you will, getting this patient [to the hospital],” Graves said.

The bus rescue took the fire crew out of service for nearly an hour.

Graves explained that the lack of ambulances is causing a strain for other emergency responders who are filling in the gaps, despite many of them working overtime to meet the community’s needs.

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“In particular, the AMR and paramedics who are driving around the white ambulances, they run from call to call to call and they’re doing what they can. It would be nice if there were more paramedics to house double paramedics, white boxes of help, but we just don’t have that.”

Multnomah County and AMR have been fighting over how to fix the problem. However, Graves hopes that they arrive at some kind of solution for improving the stressed system of emergency medical services.

KOIN 6 News reached out to both Trimet and AMR but they weren’t immediately available for comment due to the holiday.

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