An East Liverpool, Ohio, woman died at a Pittsburgh hospital after police say potentially lifesaving help didn't arrive.
The officer says he feels defeated. He and his partner found a woman suffering from a brain aneurysm.
Patrolman Jacob Talbott and another officer found the woman unresponsive Saturday morning.
They said they called right away for an ambulance, and dispatchers said one would be on the way.
But after waiting, they said they called back and were told the EMS crew wasn't coming – and the other two local ambulance companies couldn't come either.
“We were just going to take her to the hospital ourselves. We didn't have time to wait for an ambulance company out of Hancock County in West Virginia,” Talbott said.
So Talbott put the woman in the front seat of his cruiser. The other officer jumped in the back seat and started CPR. They sped off to a local hospital.
The woman was then flown to a hospital in Pittsburgh, where she died.
“I was holding out hope, saying a lot of prayers, asking for a miracle that she'd make it. Finding out she didn't make it is rather tough,” Talbott said.
Talbott said he wants answers from the ambulance companies and said it's unacceptable that none of them showed up.
“I'm not real happy that an ambulance service committed and five minutes later they no longer have a crew available,” Talbott said.
The woman's name has not been released.
The name of the company that initially agreed to respond but didn't is Ambulance Service Inc., police said.
The company did not answer WKBN's request for comment.
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