UES Teen Waited 30+ Minutes For Ambulance; Family Seeks Answers

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A 16-year-old boy with a badly broken leg waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance after being injured at an Upper East Side middle school earlier this month.

Now, his father and Councilmember Julie Menin are pressing the FDNY for answers.

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In a letter addressed to the FDNY Commissioner, Menin said the teenager was injured during an after-school basketball game at Robert Wagner Middle School on Oct. 3.

Bystanders and school officials placed five separate calls to 911 between 4:10 p.m. and 4:40 p.m., before the boy's father could no longer wait and phoned a private ambulance, which rushed him to the emergency room.

At 4:46 p.m., NYPD officers arrived at the school, located at 220 East 76th St. between Third and Second avenues, as the first responders on the scene, Menin said.

The boy's father, David Brinker, told Patch an FDNY station is around the corner.

"My 16-year-old son lay on a basketball court with two fractures that would require surgery, in agonizing pain, a few steps from a fire station," David Brinker, the child's father, said.

X-rays revealed that the teen had fractured both his tibia and fibula, the two bones between the knee and ankle.

"The Department is currently engaged in a challenging period of increasing response times. We know this is unacceptable and we are working tirelessly to reverse this trend," FDNY told Patch. "We will continue to take steps to improve response times and keep New Yorkers safe, including improving coordination with hospitals, enhancing efficiency in high-volume areas, and increased operational visibility to help return units to service quickly."

The City Council is holding a hearing on Tuesday about ambulance response times, which have increased by 41.2 percent in life-threatening emergencies, and more than doubled for non-life-threatening emergencies between 2015 and 2026, according to a report from New York City Comptroller Mark Levine.

"The timing and response by FDNY raised several questions for the family and community, as well as our office," Menin wrote in a letter addressed to Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore on Oct. 16.

Nearly three hours after Brinker's son broke his leg, the FDNY called the first bystander who had called to ask whether emergency services were still needed, Menin said.

"No family should have to give up on 911 and find their own way to help their child," Brinker said. "I am calling on the Fire Department to explain what went wrong and be held accountable so another child doesn't go through this."

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.