KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — One South Knox County father said his call for help never came after he waited almost 40 minutes for an ambulance while his baby was experiencing a series of seizures in early May.
"I don't want any parent to go through what I went through," said Mitchell Bennett. "I called 911. My mother-in-law called 911."
He said he was on a date with his wife when he got a call from his mother-in-law saying his son was having a seizure. The parents said their son's body was "shaking" for around 60 seconds at a time.
After calling 911 for help, they waited for an ambulance. He said it never arrived, even after waiting for almost 40 minutes.
"Both were told, there's an ambulance on the way. Well, when we get home, there's no ambulance," he said. "Your child needs help, you call 911, and nobody's gonna show up. That's any parent's worst nightmare."
After rushing to get his child some medical attention, Bennett took his concerns to Knox County Commissioners.
In a statement, AMR said at the time of the 911 call, 11 of the 15 ambulances in Knox County were on active calls. It said four additional calls came in, causing an ambulance for Bennett to be diverted and no units available to respond.
He said neither he nor his wife got a call back from AMR saying an ambulance was on the way. AMR also said it does not have a protocol that instructs its communications center team to make a call-back when a responding ambulance is diverted to a higher-priority call.
AMR said a protocol is being added to call people back moving forward.
"My wife and I, we should have been the first phone call," he said. "I hope what happened to us doesn't happen to somebody else."