A Longview resident who is bedridden from a decade-old accident and weighs 536 pounds says he can’t find a way to doctors’ appointments and questions why city emergency staff can’t transport him.
Vince Vieira, who basically hasn’t been able to use his legs since falling at home 11 years ago, said he hasn’t been to the doctor in about seven months, ever since Longview Fire Department personnel questioned how staff would help him get to appointments if an emergency drew the crew away.
To the 57-year-old, his doctor appointments are emergencies because he said his health depends on the checkups and he has no other way to reach physicians.
But Longview Emergency Medical Services chief Eric Koreis said emergency crews can’t be used to take people to routine doctors’ appointments.
“As you can imagine, if every member of the community called 911 to take them to a doctor’s appointment … we would be hard-pressed to figure out what to do,” he said.
Vieira said when he was around age 15, he drove off a 300-foot cliff and broke his sternum and both legs. More than a decade ago, he had surgery on one leg after falling at home and developed an infection. Eventually his muscles started wasting away and he can now only walk for short intervals.
Ever since meeting with Longview fire staff in September, Vieira said he feels he can’t call them for help; he said he couldn’t go to a dentist appointment in October when he suffered from an abscessed tooth that ruptured.
Koreis said staff held a discussion with Vieira in the autumn on how they would help him. For instance, a person called the department for assistance going up and down the stairs seven times after a recent surgery, Koreis said; crews helped the patient, but had a similar conversation with that person.
City of Longview spokesperson Angela Abel said emergencies must be the department’s first priority. A 2022 city report showed the first unit of a department arrived at emergencies within five minutes or less only 33% of the time during EMS emergencies.
“Responding to nonemergencies takes that ambulance, first responders and possibly a fire engine away from emergency situations,” she wrote in an email.
Still Koreis said staff help with nonemergencies when they can, even going so far as to make sandwiches for those with diabetes who don’t want to go to the hospital, and changing bedding for people who soil themselves.
He said staff would never refuse service to anyone in emergencies, and his staff also referred Vieira for virtual physician appointments through the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
Rocco Roncarati, American Medical Response regional director, said the company provides ambulances for people who weigh 350 to 1,200 pounds and a gurney for patients who weigh up to 650 pounds.
He said firefighting personnel help move patients, in addition to ambulance staff, depending on circumstances.
People in Cowlitz County who use Medicaid can also use a transportation service called Community in Motion for nonemergencies, like going to doctors’ appointments. However, a staff member said the service doesn’t have equipment to transport people who weigh more than 500 pounds.
Vieira said he feels stranded.
“I’m stuck at home. I have no way of getting around,” he said. “My only transportation is [an] ambulance.”