The Sleepy Eye Ambulance crew members along with police officers and firemen were present at the Open Forum prior to the start of the regular Sleepy Eye City Council meeting Tuesday night to deliver a very powerful message. In a statement read by Ambulance Coordinator and Emergency Manager Shari Hittesdorf, it was indicated Sleepy Eye may be without EMS coverage at times beginning in May due to a labor law impacting how staff is paid.

Below is what was read to the council by Shari:

In November my husband suffered a stroke. He was able to make a full recovery because of quick actions from start to finish. The Sleepy Eye Ambulance Service played a vital role in getting him to the Emergency Room on that day, within minutes of onset. Abbott Northwestern Hospital was so impressed with the way things played out, they made it a case study.

If he would have another stroke next month or anytime beyond, that prompt ambulance service response may now not be possible.

You may think this impending interruption of 24/7 ambulance service in Sleepy Eye might be because we are short staff. Well, we do desperately need emergency responders to join our team and we will give everything we have in the next few weeks to recruitment…but the lack of a response in this case is NOT being caused because of a staff shortage…it is because of an overtime labor law recently brought to light.

 The Sleepy Eye Ambulance Crew members want to cover all shifts, we want to respond to all 911 pages, it’s making many of us, literally sick to our stomachs to think we won’t be able to.

But we can’t, because of this law…no one is allowed to work over 40 hours per week without overtime being paid, and according to the Dept. of Labor, our call time counts as “Engaged to Work”.

And to complicate this situation, if someone is employed by the City of Sleepy Eye including the Sleepy Eye Medical Center, Ambulance call time would need to be added to OUR work hours…making it nearly impossible to take call time… or face the consequences of the employer paying overtime.

Yes, this affects me. As the Ambulance Coordinator and Emergency Manager for this community, as the person with the most experience, the person who trains our EMTS, not to mention teaches the doctors, nurses, firemen, police officers, lifeguards and so many others with emergency response courses…I will be very limited in how often I can respond to emergencies. VERY LIMITED!

There are some tremendous implications because this situation…for our local police officers, county deputies, firemen and our local hospital…but mostly the ones that will suffer will be our would-be patients. 

At this time, I do not have a plan in place to cover all the time slots in May that I otherwise would have been able to place our current staff in. I do not know who will respond to immediate life-threatening emergencies. And, I don’t know if our lack of response will prompt legal consequences.

What I do know is myself and our five boys were so incredibly blessed that our husband and father had the prompt care he got that fateful day in November. Not lucky, blessed…because luck would imply it happened by chance…he received proper treatment because of the training, hard work and dedication of a lot of people including my teammates on the Sleepy Eye Ambulance.

We got home from an Abbott checkup a few hours ago with basically a clean bill of health.

There are several people in this room right now who too have had positive outcomes to their medical emergency, in part because of the quick response of our local EMS agency

But come May…Well, I can’t help but wonder….

Which families will be blessed and which will have to rely on luck?

I am begging you, the council, to HELP your community in any feasible way, resolve this pending catastrophe.