Clinton Motorcade Delays Paramedics : Emergency: Ambulance waits several minutes for vehicles to pass. Patient was dead on arrival at hospital, but doctors can’t say whether delay was a factor.

Paramedics rushing to aid an elderly heart attack victim were delayed for several minutes to allow President Clinton’s motorcade to pass, officials said Saturday.

California Highway Patrol officers prevented the ambulance from getting on Interstate 10 as paramedics tried to reach Frances Jantzon on Tuesday, according to fire officials, paramedics and doctors.

Jantzon, 73, died later that night.

But at a joint news conference, officials from the CHP, the Secret Service and the Careline California Ambulance Co. denied the motorcade caused any significant delay.

“We and the ambulance company and the Secret Service have looked very carefully and exhaustedly at this and are satisfied that nothing improper occurred,” said CHP Chief Robert Hill of the Inland Division.

“The president of the ambulance company just assured the press here that they were very satisfied. The response time was reasonable.”

Hill said the motorcade was already passing through when the ambulance reached the freeway ramp. The emergency vehicle was allowed to fall in immediately behind the convoy.

Officials said the delay was under two minutes instead of 15 minutes, as originally indicated by a doctor at the hospital where Jantzon was brought.

“They took about 17 minutes to respond to the house, which is about an 11-mile drive from the location of where the ambulance company was,” said CHP Officer Kevin Martin. “There wasn’t this big huge delay.”

Both CHP and Secret Service officials in charge of the motorcade said they weren’t informed there was a problem until Friday.

“These officers would let us know if an ambulance or fire truck was coming through. I’m sure they would have come across the radio to the lead car,” said Lt. Bob Sellas, a CHP protective service unit coordinator.

The ambulance, which was not using lights or sirens, was held up as Clinton traveled from an appearance in San Bernardino to play in the Bob Hope Classic golf tournament in Indian Wells.

The incident was made public on Friday by Dr. Michael Sequeira, medical director of the emergency department at San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital. Jantzon was pronounced dead on arrival at San Gorgonio at 8:53 p.m. Tuesday.

“The emergency technicians were pretty angry about the whole thing,” Sequeira said. “They were stuck on a side street because the freeway was shut down for the motorcade.”

Doctors couldn’t say whether the delay contributed to Jantzon’s death, hospital spokeswoman Sheila Grattan said Saturday.

In a statement issued Saturday, the hospital said none of its employees had any firsthand knowledge of the incident: “Our hospital policy is to never pass on or speculate about hearsay information.”

Capt. Scott DeForge of the Riverside County Fire Department said the ambulance was stopped as it attempted to enter the freeway.