Ambulance gets stuck in mud

An ambulance dispatched from Hillsboro to a farmhouse two miles west and three miles south of town took nearly 20 minutes to get there after becoming stuck in mud on soggy county roads Monday night.

Hillsboro ambulance was dispatched at 10:35 p.m. to a report of a woman who was vomiting, shaking, and not fully cognizant near 170th and Falcon Rds.

Muddy roads slowed the ambulance to the point that it asked for advice from sheriff’s deputies about the best path to avoid dirt roads that had become quagmires after Monday’s heavy rain.

Heading south of the address in hope of looping back north on a road that they hoped wasn’t a mud bog, the ambulance became stuck at 10:54 p.m. near 160th and Goldenrod Rds.

Attendants radioed for Marion ambulance to be sent as a backup and Hillsboro firefighters to come in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to dislodge the ambulance, but before assistance could arrive, the ambulance was worked free.

It reached the farmhouse four minutes later and reported that the patient had a possibly life-threatening condition. She was taken 20 minutes later to Hillsboro Community Hospital.