Life in a rural "ambulance desert" means sometimes help isn't on the way

CARROLLTON, Ala. — Annie Jackson can't know whether her sister Grena Prude might have survived had an ambulance been more readily available when she went into cardiac arrest on May 10. But Jackson is convinced her sister would have at least had a chance.

Prude, 55, died at the steps of Carrollton City Hall, less than a half-mile from her county's only ambulance station. When someone called 911 to get her help, two ambulances were on duty: One was transporting a patient to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 45 minutes away, and the other a patient to Columbus, Mississippi, a 30-minute drive.

"It was a horrible situation," said Vicky McCrory, supervisor of the nonprofit Pickens County Ambulance Service, but not an isolated one. There have been multiple similar tragedies.