[chris]

A 5-year-old boy was pinned against a fence by a startled camel at the Knoxville Zoo on May 19, 2011, and the paramedics called to help him were kept waiting outside the entrance for roughly 25 minutes because zoo staff had reported an animal was loose, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

The Knox County E-911 Center logged a cellphone call at 11:58 a.m. from a visitor who reported that a child had been trampled by a camel, the newspaper reported. Knoxville Fire Department first responders and Rural/Metro Ambulance Service paramedics were stopped at the gate by a zoo security officer and a ranger.

Zoo officials said the crews were held back because of the initial report that an animal was loose, and that no one is allowed inside while an animal is unaccounted for. Zoo Director Jim Vlna described the delay as "a communications issue" and said that under normal circumstances responders would have been escorted in.

The boy had been behind a fence separating visitors from the camels when a 400-pound young camel became frightened and straddled the barrier, pinning him against it, zoo officials said. Rural/Metro records show the child was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center at 12:23 p.m., about 25 minutes after the call, with injuries that were not life threatening. The camels were owned by Circle G Ranch of Strawberry Plains.

Fire officials said they would meet with the zoo to work out how responders reach a patient during an animal emergency. "We will be having meetings with zoo officials so something like this doesn't happen again," KFD spokesman Capt. D.J. Corcoran said. Rural/Metro spokeswoman Kim Sepesi said the ultimate goal was to take care of the patient.