Here is some good news: A new ambulance for Ocracoke arrived May 28.
So is the Hyde County manager’s proposed 2025 budget that includes an increase of $471,00 for Emergency Management Services (EMS) staffing.
It is critical to have excellent EMS service on Ocracoke as was demonstrated by an emergency on Memorial Day.
A visitor called 911 and EMS could not respond because the only two medics (a paramedic and an EMT) on duty were off island taking a patient to Outer Banks Hospital in Nags Head. Transporting patients to that hospital takes approximately eight hours. These runs occur when more specialized medical services are needed that cannot be provided by the Ocracoke Health Center.
When warranted, paramedics may deem it necessary to medevac patients by helicopter, a service which is mostly provided by ECU Health EastCare in Greenville.
Normally, the island has two EMS crews, one for each of the island’s two ambulances, but Hyde County Manager Kris Noble said in an interview that this one-crew anomaly happened due to a shift-change on Monday.
Without an available ambulance service, the second patient on Ocracoke had to be taken to a hospital via helicopter.
The Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department (OVFD) provides assistance to EMS and Chief Albert O’Neal needed something in the ambulance still on the island.
But it was locked. He called Ocracoke’s County Commissioner Randal Mathews to tell him he would be breaking the glass on the ambulance to get that item, which he did.
Then OVFD volunteers drove the person in distress in their truck to the helipad at the island’s airport.
Complicating the situation that day were tornado warnings on the mainland which prevented the East Care helicopter from flying to Ocracoke.
Thankfully, the Dare MedFlight helicopter airlifted the patient to a hospital.
The community is thankful that dedicated people like those in the OVFD scrambled to help.
Knoble told O’Neal that “we’re giving the county EMS director a couple of days to put together some new processes so that we can have an easier way to share keys and communicate,” she said. “We’re hoping that we can get a better relationship in the coming year.”
Earlier this year, Hyde received a new ambulance. More improvements may be forthcoming as Noble said the county has put in an offer to purchase the Masonic Temple on Back Road adjacent to the health center for use by EMS.
This increased funding, getting a permanent location for EMS right next to the health center and improved communication are all necessary.
As one islander put it, it can be a matter of life and death.
