Blame It on the Department of Homeland Security
Paramedics and a medevac helicopter were summoned to a East Covina residence after the homeowner heard a plumber in the basement singing an aria from Rigoletto and concluded the man was in mortal agony.
In the confusion surrounding the desperate cries for help when homeowner Lohman Lomax called 911, an operator at Emergency Services Dispatch pushed the wrong button on her console and ordered the control computer to automatically summon a medevac helicopter.
When the paramedics scrambled down a narrow stairway to the basement ten minutes later, they found Vincente Neoplitano merrily soldering joints in copper pipes and belting out selections from Carmen, having exhausted his Rigoletto, repertory.
By the time the affair had been straightened out, no one was happy.
“I was minding my business, working away in this nasty little hell hole of a basement humming to myself as I worked, like I always do, and these two guys come tumbling down the stairs with a stretcher,” Neopolitano said.
“Before I could say a word, they had me on this stretcher and one was pounding on my chest while another one shined a light in my eyes. I kept yelling at them that nothing was wrong with me.”
Lomax watched from the top of the basement stairs as the desperate scene unfolded below.
“They worked on him for a full ten minutes, at least” Lomax recalled. “It sounded like touch and go until one of the said, ‘Oh (expletive deleted)! There’s nothing wrong with him.’ But they insisted on strapping him to the stretcher and taking him out to the ambulance for further observation. I think they were worried about who would pay for them coming out.”
West Covina officials refused to identify the Emergency Services dispatcher who summoned the medevac helicopter.
“Our operators are highly trained, but there are a lot of buttons. You should see all the buttons,” said Erma Livingstone, director of console operations. “Once you look at all the buttons, you can see how easy it is to push the wrong one.”
Livingstone said the new control computer installed last year with a $10 million federal Homeland Security Department grant has a mind of its own.
“Once you push a button on the console, it’s all over. That computer gets going and there’s no talking it out of what it wants to do. It takes on a life of its own.”
So who should pay the $6,000 medevac helicopter company’s bill?
Not West Covina, said Mayor Franklin Paltrow. “We responded to a legitimate call for help. We’re not responsible if someone pushes the wrong button. You should see all the buttons on that console. Homeland Security should pay. It’s their console.”
“I ain’t paying, no way,” said Neoplitano, the plumber. “They already cost me money. I work by the job, not the hour. I have to make three alimony payments every month. Know how hard that is? Those ambulance (expletive deleted) should pay me for time wasted and for practically killing me pounding on my chest.”
Lomax, the homeowner, doesn’t see it as his responsibility. “The guy was dying down there. You call that singing? You should’ve heard him. That ain’t singing. There should be a law against making those kinds of noises and then calling it singing.”
Lomax said he is thinking about changing plumbers the next time he needs work done on his house. “I’ll find me some rapper dude plumber. That kind of music doesn’t sound like someone dying.”