Troubling Incident

Mexico City has a number of very pleasant, upcoming neighborhoods. Many of these, such as Roma Norte; are still accessible to the middle class, contain a mix of colonial buildings and modern apartments, and have tree-lined streets free of trash (unlike others in the city). I can spend the better part of a weekend in these areas, drinking coffee at a cafe or shooting pool in one of their billiard halls. It is in these progressive parts of the city that one is given hope about the future of the country.

Every so often, however, even in these rebounding neighborhoods, I am reminded of how far the country still needs to go.

A few weeks ago, I was walking to the subway station after teaching English to the workers at the Hotel Reforma. I had just passed the Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin and was approaching a broad intersection. I heard a siren coming my way and so I waited for the advancing ambulance to pass before I crossed the street. As I stood waiting, however, it began to slow down as it approached the intersection, then it came to a stop in front of me. The ambulance driver stuck his head out of the window, and then asked me if I knew how to find the Hospital Londres.

I was shocked. An ambulance on an emergency call was driving around asking pedestrians for directions to the hospital! Why didn't they have a dispatcher guiding them or, better yet, a GPS on-board?

An incident like this would not happen in US. Many Americans decry their government regulations, but it's because the Seattle government, for example, has strict guidelines for ambulance companies that my family feels confident in their emergency services. I don't know if Mexico City lacks sufficient regulation for emergency personnel or if the rules simply aren't enforced. But it's clear that, because this ambulance was unprepared, a patient was put at risk.

And, unfortunately, I couldn't help him. I didn't know where the hospital was.