West Memphis, Ark. - (localmemphis.com) - There is a story that is not being mentioned about the bridge shutdown protest. Something that shows that a gathering that people in Memphis called peaceful, was a gathering that was potentially deadly for hospital patients in West Memphis. Local 24 Watchdog Mike Matthews has the story.
In West Memphis, if you need to go to a hospital, you normally have to cross the Mississippi River, and go to Memphis. With the I-40 Bridge shut down because of protests, the head of the West Memphis EMS Division says they had some major problems. "It hurt us pretty good last night," says West Memphis EMS Director Chris Brogdon.
He is not happy. Chris Brogdon is not a happy guy. The shutting down of bridge traffic might be considered a peaceful protest here in Memphis, an event that brought the city together, but in West Memphis, it was something that caused some life threatening situations.
"We had a possible heart attack that needed to get to Methodist Hospital," Brogdon says. "We had a high risk premature pregnancy that wasn't delivered that needed to get to Regional One, because that is the only place that does high risk pregnancies."
A few years ago, when the West Memphis hospital was closed, Memphis became the closest location for emergencies. There have been problems over the years with wrecks, with weather, and just general bridge traffic, that resulted in longer than normal ambulance runs.
This was the first time a protest, described as peaceful on one side of the river, created big problems on the other side.
"We had ambulances going in circles trying to find a place to go," Brogdon said, "... because they could not get across the bridge."
Brogdon says he has been told not to release how long it took to get those ambulances to Memphis, saying, "They finally did get there. It took some time. I won't go into specifics, but it was not an amount of time beneficial to the patient."
