New York, NY - City Council Bill for Supersized Ambulance Plan Ripped

New York, NY - Bigger patients don't need bigger ambulances, the chief of the Fire Department's EMS insisted.

Testifying on a proposed law to require the EMS to buy special ambulances for patients weighing 500 pounds or more, Chief John Peruggia told a City Council hearing that the EMS' current 400 ambulances can transport patients weighing up to 1,100 pounds.
Anyone heavier can be transported by the FDNY's rescue companies, he assured, and wider ambulances would impair EMS' ability to promptly respond to medical emergencies in the city, he said.

The Council is weighing a bill requiring EMS to have two specially built ambulances in each borough to transport morbidly obese individuals. No vote was taken, and the bill's future is uncertain.