A 67-year-od Northwood man with breathing problems had to wait 28 minutes for the Northwood Fire Department to arrive on the morning of March 3.

Tim Mix, of Parc Rue, died two days later at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center after suffering brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.

His wife Ellen called 9-1-1 three times on the morning of March 3. By the time help arrived from Medic 804, an ambulance from Northwood Fire Station No. 1 manned by an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), and Medic 50, an Advanced Life Support (ALS) rescue squad from Lake Township, Mix had stopped breathing.

“I don’t feel that Northwood is protecting their community in a timely fashion,” Ellen said to Northwood City Council and Mayor Mark Stoner at a meeting on April 14. “If I was having trouble breathing and I passed out right here, I want to know how long it would take for our EMS to respond to the trouble I was having? I want to know how prepared the city is at all times to respond to the community when needed, or should we make an appointment if we’re going to get sick or injured?”

Mix believes her husband would not have died had emergency medical help arrived sooner.

“There’s no doubt in my mind I would still have Tim if I could have gotten to either of the close hospitals we have here,” said Mix of nearby Mercy-St. Charles and Bay Park Community hospitals.

A copy of the 9-1-1 calls obtained by The Press notes that Mix made the first call at 6:49 a.m. on March 3. Medic 804 arrived at the house at 7:17.29 a.m. and Medic 50 arrived at 7:18.08 a.m.

Before she made the first 9-1-1 call, Mix told council that her husband was “having a rough time breathing,” but was responding to her.

“He was sitting in his easy chair, but he was definitely having trouble breathing. He said he was having trouble getting enough oxygen and he kept falling back to sleep. So I called 9-1-1,” she said. Minutes passed without help arriving.

She called a second time, at 6:58.54 a.m., and asked the dispatcher if she had made the call to the fire department. The dispatcher replied, “Yes I did. Yes I did. They are all volunteers,” according to the 9-1-1 audio log.

Mix told council that her husband was “still breathing at that point in time, still making sense.”

“He could not get out of that chair himself. He was just that weak. But he was responding to me. I asked him if he knew my name, and he said `Yes,’” she said.

She called 9-1-1 a third time at 7:11.09 a.m. “Hi, this is Ellen Mix again. My husband just stopped breathing. What’s the hold up?” Mix says to the dispatcher, according to the 9-1-1 audio log. “Why can’t they be here? It’s been 20 minutes?”

The dispatcher then advises Medic 804 that Mix has stopped breathing. Medic 804 advises the dispatcher to call Medic 50 in Lake Township, which has a mutual aid agreement with Northwood. At 7:13 a.m., Medic 50 is dispatched to the Mix home.

“There’s emergency vehicles going up and down the side of my house on Curtice Road at all hours of the day and night but I heard absolute silence that morning,” Mix told council.

“We’ve lived in this community, we’ve paid taxes in this community, and we love this community,” she added. “Why do you have to call three times to get someone to save your loved one? I just don’t understand that.”

Perfect storm
An investigation by The Press showed there were several issues in the fire department in the last few years that created a perfect storm that may have contributed to the slow response time to the Mix home on March 3. Those issues included budget cuts, including the elimination of two firefighter/EMT’s who manned Station 1 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, a hiring freeze, which reduced manpower, and a “two tone out” system from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. in which dispatchers waited seven minutes to call Fire Station No. 1 at 2100 Tracy Road, which covers the west side, after getting no response from Fire Station No. 2 at 6000 Wales Road, which covers the east side and is closest to the Mix home.

In addition, there were time gaps in coverage by the city’s Medic 800 ALS vehicle, which was unmanned when Mix made the first 9-1-1 call.

The Medic 800 is a Ford Expedition vehicle that has advanced life support equipment on board. A firefighter is assigned to take the vehicle home at night. One firefighter/EMT or paramedic can respond to a call in the vehicle to provide medical care, but two are required on board to transport people to the hospital. On March 3, firefighter Ray Beckman was in charge of Medic 800 until 6 a.m., 49 minutes before Mix made the first call to 9-1-1. It was not scheduled to be back in service until 8 a.m., creating a two hour gap. At 6:55.52 that morning, Beckman calls dispatch to say he forgot to call in, and that Medic 800 would be out of service until someone else calls in.

Another contributing factor is the lack of available volunteer firefighters who may be working at their full-time jobs or have family commitments.

“I don’t think coverage gaps are unusual in this day and age,” Northwood Administrator Dennis Recker told The Press. “I think we’ve talked in the past about the difficulty of keeping a part-time volunteer force up to the level where they’re providing 24/7 coverage, much like a full-time department would. It was the worst possible time for the situation that occurred, coupled with, overall, the worst possible circumstances.”

Chief’s second job
The Press also learned that on March 3, Northwood Fire Chief Tim Romstadt, who is also a paramedic, was unavailable to respond to the Mix call because he was completing a 12-hour shift in the Springfield Township Fire Department, where he worked three days a week. His shift in Springfield started at 7 p.m. on March 2 and ended at 7 a.m. on March 3, 11 minutes after Mix made the first 9-1-1 call to the Northwood Fire Department. Romstadt’s annual salary as Northwood’s fire chief was $66,000.

Springfield Township Fire Chief Barry Cousino told The Press that Romstadt was a full-time lieutenant in the township fire department starting in 1999. He worked on a “contingency” basis, which is less than part-time, in May, 2007 so he could take the full-time chief position in Northwood. Last year, Romstadt started working 12-hour shifts three days per week in the township.

Cousino said Romstadt worked more in the township last year because Northwood cut his hours.

“He needed to supplement his income. He has a family to support,” said Cousino.

Last year, the city cut the salaries of department heads by 3-percent, and required all salaried personnel, which included Romstadt, to take eight unpaid furlough days before the end of the year.

Stoner said last week that he told Romstadt in 2007 that he would have to quit his job in Springfield Township if he wanted to become Northwood’s full-time chief.

Romstadt, who had been a volunteer firefighter in the Northwood Fire Department for 12 years, had agreed according to Stoner.

Recker, who had replaced long time Administrator Pat Bacon last October, said he was unaware Romstadt had a second job until late last year. He had contacted Springfield Township Fire Chief Barry Cousino to find out how many hours he was working in the township. On Dec. 22, 2010, he received a letter from Cousino stating that Romstadt was working 12-hour shifts three times per week. Romstadt had never quit.

Recker said he met with Romstadt in January to ask him to quit his second job. He said he told Romstadt he wanted a fire chief “to be in peak condition without coming off a 12-hour shift.”

“I wanted the chief to be fully deployable, especially since he is a paramedic, and ready to serve,” said Recker.

Romstadt refused to quit, said Recker, who then told Romstadt to “think about it.”

Romstadt, who also teaches EMS classes at Owens Community College and Bowling Green State University, told The Press he had never concealed his continued employment in the township.

“I never hid it,” he said. “When I was hired, the mayor told me I would have to quit my full-time job in Springfield. He never said I could not work part-time.”

Stoner, though, said he told Romstadt he would have to quit his job in the township, whether it was full or part-time.

“When I had offered him the chief’s job, I told him he had a difficult decision to make,” recalled Stoner. “He could either stay in the township or could come to Northwood and be the chief of his hometown.”

Stoner said he was “extremely disappointed” with Romstadt.

“We were going through a budget crunch. My department heads took a 3-percent pay cut, the fire department took a 3-percent pay cut, council and the mayor gave back 10-percent of their take home pay,” said Stoner. “We laid people off, we got rid of police officers, we got rid of people in the streets department. We’re all sacrificing, too. We were in pretty bad shape. Then I have a fire chief who is not doing his job.”

Chief 24/7
Stoner compared the full-time fire chief’s position to the position of full-time police chief.

“If Northwood Police Chief Tom Cairl is at home and he gets a call, he’s going. If Tim is in Springfield working 12 hours and he gets a call, what is he going to do? Being a chief, you have a responsibility to your city. As a department head, Romstadt was the third or fourth highest paid employee in the city. I was disappointed he was not there,” said Stoner. “If you’re on a 12-hour shift in Springfield, you cannot respond to a call here in Northwood. And that’s what his job was as a full-time chief.”

Romstadt insisted his employment with the township never interfered with his duties as fire chief. He said he had responded to calls in Northwood at night and on the weekends.

“I was not compensated for this. I did this on my own time,” said Romstadt.

But Stoner said Romstadt, as a full-time fire chief with a $66,000 salary, was expected to be available throughout the day to respond to calls.

“As chief, he was expected to take calls 24/7. He was not expected to work just eight hours a day, 40 hours per week. That’s why he was on a salary. We didn’t pay him an hourly rate. He wasn’t supposed to be working 12-hour shifts three times per week and teaching college,” said Stoner.

In addition, he said Romstadt had failed to show up at Safety Committee meetings for several months. Romstadt resigned as fire chief on April 12. He told The Press that he quit due to “family issues.”

“I wanted to have time for my kids,” he said. “I have five kids, one is in college and the other four are in sports. The day-to-day stressors of the job far outweighed me being full-time in Northwood.”

At the same time he submitted his resignation, Romstadt had asked to be hired as part-time deputy chief of the fire department, in which he would be paid $18 per hour and work up to 25 hours per week. His request was approved by Mayor Stoner.

Romstadt, when asked by The Press if he would have responded to the Mix home on the morning of March 3 had he not been working in Springfield Township at the time, said, “If I am available, I respond to calls. It depends on what goes on with my life and family life. It is impossible to me to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The March 3 incident, he said, was “beyond anyone’s control.”

“Everything hit at the wrong time. Everybody did what they were supposed to do. It was a very unfortunate incident. The bottom line is, it took us a very long time to get there. The volunteer firefighters have outside lives. They do this job because they love their community and want to give back. They do a great job for this community. The problem is, when we tone out, we never know how many will show up,” said Romstadt.

Mix told The Press her husband, who had pneumonia, was revived by emergency personnel at her home, then was transported to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, where he was removed from life support two days later.

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