A patient in Tampa, Fla., died after the ambulance that picked him up broke down, and it took almost an hour to get him to the hospital, according to ABC Action News.
The news outlet found this incident is one of several at Tampa Fire Rescue.
When the patient, 50-year-old Richard Bateman, collapsed in his home Sept. 5, a Tampa Fire Rescue engine and ambulance arrived within minutes.
But the ambulance would not start when emergency responders tried to drive the patient to the hospital. The crew called for a backup rescue truck.
The second ambulance arrived about 40 minutes after the initial 911 call, and the ride to the hospital took 11 minutes. The patient was pronounced dead of a heart attack moments after arrival.
The ABC Action News team examined this issue further, finding several issues with Tampa's rescue vehicles.
The ambulance that transported Mr. Bateman broke down due to a faulty alternator and was over three weeks overdue for preventive maintenance the day he died, records show.
The team also found maintenance logs for Tampa's other 27 working ambulances show 52 incidents of rescue trucks stalling or failing to start over a two-year period, with issues such as bad batteries and faulty alternators.
A spokesperson for Tampa Fire Rescue said the breakdown during the call to Mr. Bateman's home was unavoidable and crews had done nothing wrong.
"The issue that that one had specifically was an alternator, and that's something you really can't plan for," the spokesperson said.