March 05--Two volunteers from the Falmouth Fire Station in Stafford County were suspended after transporting an 18-month-old to the hospital in a fire engine, according to firefighters from the station. The suspended firefighters, Captain James Kelley and Sgt. They were the first to arrive when called to a location near a McDonald’s restaurant last Saturday because the child was having a seizure, Kelley said. Kelley said he immediately told the driver of the truck to turn on the engine because the child was in dire need of a hospital. Based on a previous call location for the nearest medic, Kelley said he thought it would be at least 10 to 15 minutes before one could arrive at the restaurant. NEW: Facebook page started to support suspended Stafford Co. volunteer firefighters 
 
 Kelley said he asked for a location from the nearest medic, but didn’t receive a specific answer until after his second request, and even then, the information he got was “southbound on Route 1,” without any other specifics. Kelley said he then requested mutual aid from the city of Fredericksburg, but Fredericksburg was never dispatched. After the child was put into the fire engine and they were en route to Mary Washington Hospital, Kelley says another ambulance requested to meet up with the engine at Falmouth Station—but because of his proximity to the hospital at that point, Kelley denied that request. According to Kelley, the child was put on oxygen in the fire engine and was in the trauma room within 13 minutes of the time the call came in. She had paralysis on the entire left side of her body when she arrived at the hospital, according to Kelley. Virgil Bloom were the first to arrive at the McDonald's restaurant near the Ferry Farms neighborhood last Saturday, Kelley said. Smith said he would have done the same thing because the priority is always the best care of the patient. Bloom and Kelley have were suspended by the county after the incident last Saturday, according to several firefighters. According to Kelley, his fire engine is licensed as a “non-transport unit,” and doesn’t have the proper restraints and medications that medic units have. But Falmouth Volunteer Fire Chief Christopher Smith and Kelley both contend that Kelley didn't violate a written Stafford policy. In a statement sent to FOX 5, a Stafford County Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said, "A potential regulatory compliance issue is under review by the Fire and Rescue Department and the Virginia Department of Health.
– Two volunteer firefighters are on administrative leave after driving an 18-month-old girl to the hospital for urgent medical care in their fire engine, Fox 5 DC reports. Capt. James Kelley and Sgt. Virgil Bloom, who volunteer in Fredericksburg, Va., found the girl partly paralyzed and were told she had just suffered a seizure. Worse, the nearest medic was apparently 15 minutes away and a second call for a medic solicited a vague answer—"southbound on Route 1"—about its location, says Kelley. "Considering all the factors ... I felt it was in the patient's best interest to transport immediately," says Kelley, per a press release issued by his fire department. The girl's father, Brian Nunamaker, says it all began on the morning of Feb. 27, when his little girl had a seizure in the car and he pulled up near a McDonald's and called 911. "As a parent, you feel extremely helpless to be unable to assist the most important person in the world (your child) during such a time of emergency," he says in an email. The firefighters came "quickly," he adds, and found his daughter limp with a pulse; she was also blue from her head to her chest, Kelley tells the Free Lance-Star. The firefighters administered oxygen and drove her to a hospital, where she was transferred to VCU and eventually discharged in good health. "The neurologists at VCU explained that timing is extremely important when reacting to seizures," the father says. But Bloom and Kelley were suspended because their fire engine is considered a "non-transport unit" and lacks medications and restraints. "I would not hesitate, I would do the exact same thing 100% 10 times out of 10," Kelley tells WUSA. A fire official declined to comment while the matter is under review. (In another case, four firefighters went on an arson spree.)