Details about this story

• Source: San Francisco Chronicle
• Date: April 13, 2008
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Jim Doyle
• Topics: Safety
• Data Types: Local Data
• Description/Excerpt: Gustave Grialou was one of at least 439 people who have died in San Francisco since February 2004 while waiting for a late ambulance or after delayed medical help arrived, according to a Chronicle analysis of dispatch logs for about 200,000 high-priority medical calls. In 27 percent of those calls, first responders failed to meet the city's standard for getting help to the scene of high-priority medical calls. In some areas of the city, such as the Ingleside and Excelsior districts, the odds of an ambulance being late are almost 40 percent. While it is impossible to know how many of the 439 people who died would have survived had medical help arrived earlier, studies show a direct relationship between ambulance delays and the survival rates of patients in need of immediate resuscitation.
• Methodology: See explainer
• Database or Graphic: Go to site (com/webdb/code3/)