imo, he should have been life flighted to NY immediately.
Time was wasted during the first stop, presumably to assess & stabilize him. Moo
You could be very right. But, I have questions.
If he died at the scene, why would they move him and take him to a hospital? When people are dead on scene, they wait until the coroner comes to send the body off to the morgue. I think we don't have the full story (or, I am hoping we don't have the full story). It is not that I don't think this is dire, I do. I am just wondering as there was so much miss information yesterday. On the driveway, he was not hooked up to monitors, etc. In the ambulance, he would have been hence them finding his vital signs. I keep coming back to was he really dead or was that the untrained thought process versus the advanced life saving team who came on scene later.
There are standing orders in place for EMS personnel, and these do vary by location (even among locations in CT) with regard to 'calling a code' aka determining death in the field (ETA: Or deciding not to work a code in the first place).
In some towns/areas, police are medical first responders, in others they are not. I don't know if Farmington PD is or not. If FD was seated in the car, with his chin to chest, it may have appeared he wasn't breathing, and they may not have felt a pulse initially. Once out of the car, and on a cardiac monitor, they may have seen activity and the decision was made to work him. No clue if that's what occurred, but it's a possiblity.
As for where he was transported to, many factors come in to play with regard to helicopters. Sometimes the ETA to the higher level hospital facility will be longer WITH a helicopter than without. The chopper might not have been available, might not have been clear to fly due to weather, if there was no heli pad on the property (like there is at a hospital) then the nearest pre-planned landing zone would need to be utilized. (In my town this is our local football field.) It takes a little bit to do a pre flight check, load personnel, fly to the LZ (which fire personnel has to also respond to), then an ambulance takes the PT to the LZ, the patient is loaded, etc.
UConn Health Center is IN Farmington. Maybe 10-15 minutes max from house to hospital? The patient would be in the ER being stabilized and receiving higher levels of care than even a phenomenal medic with extra help can provide in the back of the ambulance. THEN the chopper can respond to the (safer) hospital LZ/pad and fly him out. Sometimes waiting isn't a better choice (when there is a choice).
Also, for LifeStar (not sure about others) I'm pretty sure their criteria excludes patients in cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest usually requires EMS to transport to the closest facility. If he returned a pulse but not spontaneous respirations, he would have needed to be on a vent then before they'd take him.