Be honest about your symptoms: Emergency responders

Citing instances of people withholding symptoms of COVID-19 when calling for emergency medical assistance for fear that an ambulance wouldn’t come, last week the Wabasha County Sheriff’s Office encouraged people to be honest.

“All of the ambulance services in Wabasha County will respond to all requests for emergency services no matter what the patients’ symptoms are,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “We do ask that you be accurate and truthful when calling in so we may respond accordingly with everyone’s safety in mind.”

Lake City Ambulance Director Sara Rybarczyk said in an email that Lake City Ambulance Service didn’t know of any of its patients withholding or not being truthful about symptoms, but other services did.

“We want to encourage anyone that has an emergency and needs an ambulance to not hesitate to call 911, and if they have COVID-19 symptoms or suspect they have COVID-19, that does not in any way impact our decision to respond to their call for assistance.

“Our service has done everything we can to prepare and protect our staff and the patients by wearing protective gowns, gloves, masks, goggles, and faceshields.

“We are prepared to transport any suspected COVID-19 patient in a safe manner. We are also taking precautions to ensure that patients that require ambulance transport that are not sick with COVID-19 symptoms are protected and not exposed to the virus by our staff or ambulances.

“We do want people to be honest about their symptoms so that we can protect our staff and other patients.”