Dear Sir,

We all know that the Cruz Roja is essential in our community and we rely on them to be there when we need them.

On September 22, Cruz Roja proudly announced the improvements and staff of the facility on the west side of Ajijic.

Exactly one week later on September 29, I had a personal experience that I hope will not happen to you. On that Sunday evening, I drove by the new facility and it was totally dark. Nobody was there.

A friend was having problems breathing and at exactly 8:30 p.m. on Sunday a call was placed to Cruz Roja to take him to the Ajijic clinic. Ten minutes later they called back and said they had another emergency in Chapala and that would take priority. At 9 p.m. we called back and no one answered the line. We continued calling for 30 minutes with no one answering.

At 9:30 p.m., exactly one hour later, a friend called the police in Chapala and was given a different phone number for Cruz Roja. They finally answered this number and at 9:45 p.m. they arrived at the house, exactly one hour and 15 minutes after our first call.

Would this be acceptable to you in a time of need?

We finally got our friend Dr. Roberto Moulun to the Ajijic Clinic at 10 p.m. Regrettably, he passed away about 3:15 p.m. the following afternoon.

Thankfully, Roberto made it to the clinic and received great care from Dr. Jessica and later Dr. Leon, but the services of the Cruz Roja have to be called into question.

I welcome representatives of Cruz Roja to contact me and arrange a meeting to discuss the circumstances of this situation and how we can work together to improve the services in our community.

Dudley Baker

Editor’s note: The writer also registered his complaint directly to Cruz Roja Chapala through the organization’s established incident report channel. Following review of the matter, board vice-president Norm Pifer issued the following response, with a copy to the Reporter.

In response, the clinic was “totally dark” because the crew stationed at that location was on an emergency call. The bilingual operator on duty that evening recalls that the original call was for us to hook up an IV to Dr. Moulun who was suffering from cancer and had not eaten for several days and was dehydrated. The operator explained that we don’t (can’t legally) do that and suggested a nurse or doctor be contacted to hook up the IV.

Upon review of notes taken at the time, no request for transport was requested.

The one hour of calling the wrong number and getting no answer, we have no answer for that one since once you got the correct emergency number from the police, we answered and things proceeded.

On the call received at 9:29 p.m., it was explained by the caller that an attempt was made to have Hospital Ajijic send their ambulance to take Dr. Moulun to Hospital Ajijic, but their ambulance was inoperative. Our records indicate our ambulance arrived at the address given at 9:37 p.m. and ultimately arrived at Hospital Ajijic at 9:44 p.m.

We are certainly sorry for your loss and understand in times of crisis and further recollection that accuracy is sometimes fuzzy. For those reasons, our dispatch mandate is to keep records as detailed as possible.
If we can be of further service, please contact us

Norm Pifer

Footnote: The correct telephone for emergency calls is (376) 765-2308. The incident report procedure for filing complaints and suggestions is explained on the webpage www.cruzrojalakeside.com/faq.htm.