When Philly's homeless get treated like garbage

He was likely homeless, very likely drunk and possibly mentally ill.

The Sunday before last, I was biking along Spruce Street just after 5:30 p.m. when a man without either arm tumbled into the street. He was likely homeless, very likely drunk and possibly mentally ill. He somehow got himself out of the street and laid down in the middle of the sidewalk. I encouraged him to make his way back to his perch on a nearby stoop, next to a tall boy of Colt 45.

I called 911 at 5:41 p.m. and told the dispatcher that the man needed immediate medical attention. He was stumbling and could not speak. As he tried to stand up, his pants kept falling down. Time passed, and it began to rain, but no ambulance was in sight.

The man stumbled toward a shirt that was lying on the ground and tried to pick it up with his prosthetic hook. I kept telling him to sit down, and to stay awake. Another spill into the road would be dangerous.

I called 911 again at 5:52 p.m. and was told the ambulance was on its way. But when I called again at 6 p.m. something odd happened: I was transferred from 911 to the Fire Department dispatcher, who told me that there was no record of any ambulance having been sent — but that one was leaving now.

The man at some point started walking east toward Broad Street, his pants falling to his knees. Fearful for his safety, I followed and watched as he peed against the wall of the Atlantic Building.

A security guard employed by Post Brothers, the developers who own the building, emerged and started yelling at him to pull up his pants. I asked the guard not to yell, explaining that he was extremely sick and that I had called an ambulance. Instead, the guard called police, to whom he complained about both the man and myself — and then, in a menacing sort of way, berated me.

Later, Post Brothers CEO Mike Pestronk wrote me by email that the guard, who works for a contractor, "did not go through proper protocol" and that they "have let all parties know that this behavior was not acceptable."

The ambulance finally arrived around 6:10 p.m. — 30 minutes after I first called. The city Fire Department boasts an average response time of 6.5 minutes for medic units. According to the Fire Department, my "first two calls were interpreted and dispatched as a police matter by the police communications staff. The third call was the first call to be transferred to PFD."

The ambulance, which arrived about eight minutes after the Fire Department received my last call, transported the man to Hahnemann University Hospital. I do not know his name and, because of medical privacy rules, do not know what happened to him.

Why, I asked the Police Department, did two calls that clearly identified a medical emergency get routed to police? Spokesperson Lt. John Stanford told me that police are often dispatched first to deal with the mentally ill or intoxicated and that "it had absolutely nothing to do" with him being homeless. Sometimes it is not dire enough to require an ambulance, he says. Other times, police assistance is needed for safety reasons. He says that an error may have been made in this case, which they are investigating.

Either way, 30 minutes was too long for a man who, amongst other things, risked getting hit by a car. Our most vulnerable citizens deserve better.