It isn’t about the money, though St. John Rescue training officer Bob Malacarne said it would be nice to be paid for transporting dead bodies from where they died to the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center’s morgue. They want a contract from the government to continue doing the job they’ve been doing since 2006.
“We want all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed. Liability wise, we’re out there on a limb,” Malacarne said Friday.
Since they can’t pry a contract out of the V.I. Justice Department, which has responsibility over the matter, Malacarne said the members will no longer transport dead bodies effective Sept. 18.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Wayne Anderson said he is aware of the situation, and said he believes something can be worked out.
It’s a complex issue, Anderson said, providing this scenario: What happens if St. John Rescue picks up a body from what is later determined to be a crime scene?
“They’re not trained in crime scenes,” Anderson said.
Malacarne said St. John Rescue has been trying to get a contract since about 2007, but Anderson said he doesn’t know how long the issue has been on the burner since it predates his arrival at the Justice Department.
Anderson said St. John Rescue initially had a Memorandum of Understanding but the complexity of the issue called for a contract. Malacarne said no written memorandum exists.
Anderson said that contract is now sitting on Attorney General Vincent Frazier’s desk.
Anderson said finalizing the contract work will require all St. John’s first responder agencies to be on the same page.
“We want to make sure protocols are put in place,” he said.
Malacarne said St. John Rescue has its own Standard Operating Procedure for transporting deceased people in a respectful manner, but the members want one from the government.
He said what happens if after the members transport a dead body, a family member claims the deceased was wearing a Rolex watch, but St. John Rescue members say that wasn’t the case.
Malacarne said staff from the Medical Examiner’s office come from St. Thomas on the barge to pick up the bodies from Myrah Keating, but since the barges don’t run at night and it can take several hours during the day, bodies can languish if St. John Rescue doesn’t pick them up.
According to Malacarne, the Justice Department set up some verbal procedures. He said the volunteer organization must be called by 911. While that works in most cases, Malacarne said when a person dies at home under hospice care, the police are not involved. He said family members have gotten angry at St. John Rescue because they couldn’t respond to transport the deceased.
Malacarne said they also must contact the Justice Department or the Medical Examiner’s office, which can result in delays, especially on weekends. And a police officer has to be on the scene.
St. John Rescue inherited the job when the St. John resident, who previously handled it part-time for the government, retired. Malacarne said St. John Rescue got a call asking that the members transport a body.
“Once we said yes, that was it, we had the job,” he said.
Malacarne said it takes three people, a St. John Rescue vehicle and about an hour to pick up a dead body.
“They do replace the body bag,” he said, which cost about $20.
Malacarne said that if it’s a crime scene, it takes a lot longer because they have to wait for the police to finish their work. He said St. John Rescue members are on hold waiting for that to happen, which means they aren’t available to respond to emergencies.
He said St. John Rescue handles about 10 body transports a year.
Things came to a head in August when someone died at Honeymoon Beach. Malacarne said it took about four hours for the Medical Examiner’s office to decide what to do about the issue, and the deceased remained on the beach the entire time.
Malacarne said St. John Rescue gets $32,000 a year from the government. He said this compares to the $150,000 each sister organizations on St. Thomas and St. Croix get.
He said it’s unfair that they get so much more because St. John Rescue picks up bodies, holds CPR classes for the community and has recertification classes for EMTs, all activities not done by the other rescue organizations.
