Community | February 19, 2010 | 37 comments

Man Dies After 10 Calls to 911 Over Two Days

source: http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/curtis-mitchell-dies-after-10-calls-to-911-over-two-da...

Image
KSirys
(Feb. 18) -- It took 10 calls to 911 and almost 30 hours for paramedics to reach Curtis Mitchell. But by the time they made it to his Hazelwood, Pa., home, he was dead.

"I sat up here with him, watching him die," Mitchell's longtime girlfriend, Sharon Edge, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "They didn't do their jobs like they were supposed to."

Pittsburgh officials, including Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, apologized to Mitchell's family and have enacted a new policy for responding to emergency calls.

"We should have gotten there," Public Safety Director Michael Huss told members of the local media. "It's that simple."

So why didn't they?

The Pittsburgh area was buried in 2 feet of snow when Mitchell, 50, began calling emergency dispatchers around 2 a.m. on Feb. 6. In his first 911 call, he complained that his "entire stomach was in pain," according to a report by Dr. Ron Roth, medical director for Pittsburgh's Public Safety Department. His symptoms were judged to be non-life-threatening.

After two hours passed without paramedics showing up, Mitchell placed a second call, learning an ambulance was stuck in the snow near a local bridge. He was asked if he could walk four blocks to meet the ambulance, but he said his pain was too severe. The call was canceled.

After another hour and another call from Mitchell, a second ambulance got stuck at the same bridge, its crew unaware that it was the second group to attempt to reach Mitchell, as the call histories were not noted by dispatchers. First-responders again asked Mitchell to come to them, according to Roth's report.

"If he wants a ride to the hospital, he is just going to have to come down to the truck," a medic told the dispatcher.

Mitchell's call was canceled for the second time.

Over the next 10 hours, Mitchell's symptoms intensified along with the number of calls to 911 from across the snowed-in Pittsburgh area. Limited availability became a factor in reaching Mitchell, who eventually was unable to call for help himself. Edge took over, telling dispatchers her boyfriend was suffering shortness of breath after a full day of contacting medics for care.

In a late call, Edge said she "could not get him up" after he took sleep and pain medications. Roth's report said a doctor who spoke with Edge was convinced Mitchell had taken prescribed pills and gone to sleep. Mitchell and Edge had made calls from 11:17 a.m. through 9:15 p.m on Feb. 6.

The final 911 call from the Mitchell home came at 8 a.m. Feb. 7. Edge was screaming; Mitchell was non-responsive and cold. Paramedics finally arrived, but it was too late.

The cause of Mitchell's death has not been determined yet, as toxicology reports are pending, according to the Post-Gazette.

Ravenstahl called the handling of Mitchell's situation "unacceptable," promising that EMS protocol would be changed to take note of a caller's history. He is weighing disciplinary action against the ambulance crew.

There are apologies, but Edge told Pittsburgh's WPXI-TV she can't accept them.

"Someone should be held responsible. The paramedic or the city," she said. "Someone has to be held responsible."

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/curtis-mitchell-dies-after-10-calls-to-911...|main|dl1|link4|http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/curtis-mitchell-dies-after-10-calls-to-911...
  1. groups:
    Community,   Current Cultural Issues
  2. tags:
    News,  911,  Negligence,  Paramedics
  3.     
    |

37 comments // Man Dies After 10 Calls to 911 Over Two Days

  • Progresshiv
  • sunshine1649
    • 0
      sunshine1649  

    • Well, Luke (the mayor) was able to get on a plane to go to Mardi Gras claiming he was "stuck" at a ski resort, so the EMT's really could have walked to get this guy help. But they was just lazy!

    • 2 years ago
  • rebelution07
  • KSirys
    • 0
      KSirys  

    • How great is current?? this guy needed help, current could have exposed how bad 911 was and how this person died without help... but instead of that, they have 3 of their staffers on the main page with nonsense articles and with a total of 12 votes..

      so yeah, current is turning into the next MTV...

    • 2 years ago
  • Maeveeo
  • Onyx_Honda
    • 0
      Onyx_Honda  

    • Wow, that's awful. You'd think that they would have some sort of back-up plan for just such cases. Maybe they could've been escorted by a snow plow or something.

      Not good at all.

    • 2 years ago
  • MotherForTruth
    • 0
      MotherForTruth  

    • Outrageous. "If he wants a ride to the hospital, he is just going to have to come down to the truck," a medic told the dispatcher.
      This patient is not calling for taxi he is calling 911 for medical emergency.
      What is wrong with these people?

    • 2 years ago
  • kashmircrackkrishna
    • 0
      kashmircrackkrishna  

    • DAMN people won't even piss on ya if you were on fire..... or how 'bout this....drive 'em to the hospital yourself... there are entirely too many people to blame here... damn government for having satellites that generate snow storms

    • 2 years ago
  • layofflist
    • 0
      layofflist  

    • Let's see. If the 911 call came from Arlen Specter, Ravenstahl, Congressman Mike Doyle, or Ben Roethlisberger, do you think they would have made it to the house? Of course they would have. Just another example of how the system continues to fail the little guy.

    • 2 years ago
  • partyrager
  • animalia_libero
  • Nephwrack
  • common_sense_please
    • 0
      common_sense_please  

    • This is a very sad situation but I don't think it is necessarily ALL the paramedics fault--there were a huge number of failures and miscommunications along the way that lead up to this tragedy. I mean--WTF is the deal with the girlfriend not demanding that the paramedics f off and come to them rather than just re-dialing 911? and why did he and the girlfriend even bother to tell the 911 operator that he was resting and had taken prescribed meds?

      I am not trying to be a jerk--but I just don't think this is as clear cut as AOL is making it sound--nor do I think that its right that in an effort to tie this up in court for years and thus never have to actually pay the money on the settlement the city will simply fire the paramedics and do nothing to keep the media from making the paramedics out to be the only bad guys or villains in this tragedy and meanwhile nothing will be done to correct the behavior of the people higher up on the food chain that should be held equally responsible and/or who are in a position to actually keep type of situation from happening again.

    • 2 years ago
  • feefer2010
    • 0
      feefer2010  

    • That snow may have been deep but those pramedics could have fouond a wya to get to him themselves, maybe they could have helped him to the ambulance

    • 2 years ago
  • Elligirl
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  

    • Thats no way to die. There is no reason that the Medics could not have carried a bag down to the Man. To check just what was wrong with him. I do not say this very often but I am saying it. NOW SUE THEIR ASS !!!

    • 2 years ago
  • planetjoseph
  • homeeconomicalengineer
  • nursediesel
    • +6
      nursediesel  

    • What the EMT's didn't have legs? Walk to the patient, carry the equipment. You may have been able to help him with IVs and meds you had in the ambulance. Usually two people in each one, so do relays to get the meds if you didn't carry the right ones with you. At least you could have started an IV. The AED's are tiny now and they do a cardiac strip and can defibrilate, too! When I was a community/visiting nurse if the car wouldn't get there we would walk the rest of the way, carrying our supplies and paper work. We've had nurses rescued off the roof of their cars in flash floods to get the job done. 'Seriously need their protocol changed.

    • 2 years ago
  • wayseeker
    • +1
      wayseeker  
    • nursediesel:

      I said this earlier but When I was a respiratory technician we had a saying: If it breaks your arm to save a patient, save a patient. These medics are a disgrace to their profession.

    • 2 years ago
  • artemis6
  • sidewayssquare
    • 0
      sidewayssquare  

    • goverment dosent keep money on hand for emergencys, they spend it all on booze, drugs, whores, lobbyist's, and politicians. (sorry thats redundant)

      lets put it this way, the healthy paramedic has no business telling the sick to walk 4 blocks, when fatty could of gotten his ass out of the warm ambulance (im just guessing, seems pretty lazy to me)

    • 2 years ago
  • jubal
  • KSirys
  • wayseeker
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  
    • wayseeker:

      I agree, I was just asking the question to see what alternatives people could have come up with.

      Here in Oregon, since the huge budget cuts in the Sheriffs has taken its toll, it takes at least an hour to two hours to get a response from them through 911 if you live out in the countryside. City cops will be there in under 5 minutes if your in the City of Eugene, but if you are 20 miles out of town in County jurisdiction, you might as well have your own weapons ready to defend your life and your property.

      I wonder if that town has had budget cuts of their own to contend with?

    • 2 years ago
  • wayseeker
    • 0
      wayseeker  
    • jubal:

      I'm now retired but I was a respiratory technician. I was trained to respond to an emergency (code blue) as if my life depended on it. I think that's why I am so critical of emergency personal who are slow to respond to a call. When someone's life is at stake you just get there period.

    • 2 years ago
  • ahiguy
    • 0
      ahiguy  
    • wayseeker:

      Yeah, that IS why they (paramedics) are called emergency first responders... Crimmeny, they could have at least walked the four blocks to assess the severity of the situation, d'ya think?

    • 2 years ago
  • Jubiejanks
    • +1
      Jubiejanks  
    • jubal:

      so its expected for the patient to walk to the paramedics but when the pain is too severe to walk, its unheard of for the paramedics to walk to the patient?

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
  • bailey78
  • Nephwrack
  • wayseeker
    • +4
      wayseeker  

    • It makes me so angry when some official simply describes behavior such as this "unacceptable". It has become "unacceptable" and politically incorrect now days to publicly say things the way they are. Let's not hurt any ones feelings. The failure of these so called public servants to do their duty was horrendous and the results were catastrophic to say the least. Everyone responsible should not only lose their jobs but be charged with the appropriate degree of manslaughter. Is the family supposed to take comfort in hearing the failures that caused the death of a member were labeled "unacceptable".

    • 2 years ago
  • JosephJinx
    • 0
      JosephJinx  
    • wayseeker:

      Exactly. The moment the EMT crew wanted the person in question to walk to -them- rather than the crew picking him up, they completely failed at their job. There's no sugarcoating that. I understand stress, I understand budget cuts; I do not understand cold and callous behavior by those whose duty it is to be saving lives.

    • 2 years ago
  • wayseeker
    • 0
      wayseeker  
    • JosephJinx:

      As I said earlier I was once an inhalation technician in a hospital. There was a saying: If you have to break an arm to save a patient, save a patient. These cowards didn't want their feet to get cold.

    • 2 years ago
  • KSirys
more from Community:
from the community

top videos