The daughter of a person who died of cardiac arrest after Rialto paramedics refused to enter a care facility the place he was a affected person has filed a $100 million wrongful demise declare in opposition to the Hearth Division.
Bridgette Angulo alleges in her declare, filed Jan. 27 with town, that the paramedics’ failure to instantly enter Rialto Put up Acute Care Heart on South Riverside Avenue shortly earlier than 8 p.m. on Nov. 17 and deal with her father, 56-year-old Joseph Angulo, proved deadly.
“On account of the Rialto Hearth Division employees and paramedics’ failure to manage the wanted medical help to claimant’s decedent, decedent died,” in keeping with the declare.
Metropolis officers shocked
The incident shocked metropolis officers, who commissioned an unbiased investigation into the incident, publicly launched the recorded video from responding police Cpl. Ralph Ballew’s body-worn digicam, and positioned the three paramedics who responded to the 911 name and refused to enter the constructing on paid go away pending the end result of the probe.
“We’re hopeful that the investigation will wrap up quickly,” metropolis spokesman Adan Ortega mentioned.
The police video confirmed the three paramedics, sporting face coverings, idly standing exterior the ability’s entrance doorways whereas nurses inside frantically scurried about and carried out CPR on Angulo, who had been a affected person on the heart since Nov. 5, 2021.
The paramedics cited a state COVID-19 protocol as the rationale for not getting into the ability, telling nursing employees they needed to convey Angulo exterior. Regardless of repeated pleas by annoyed nurses that the paramedics come inside to assist, they might not budge.
One facility worker yelled out to the paramedics that they might not transfer the affected person as a result of they had been performing CPR on him.
“Hearth personnel replied, ‘You might be doing the identical factor we must do if we went in, so hurry up and convey him out so we may also help,’ ” in keeping with a report by Ballew, who famous that one of many paramedics mentioned to him that if the nursing employees didn't recognize what they had been doing, “they need to name their congressman.”
‘Fairly disgusting’
“It was fairly disgusting,” mentioned lawyer William D. Shapiro, who's representing Bridgette Angulo within the litigation. “The state of affairs was very disappointing — that one in all our native first responders would do that.”
Ballew, now a sergeant, did enter the ability, hurriedly serving to nurses navigate Angulo’s wheel-less mattress by way of the hallway as a nurse stayed mounted atop the mattress performing chest compressions, desperately attempting to resuscitate him.
“Regardless of being of their line of sight, hearth personnel nonetheless insisted on (Angulo) being delivered to them exterior earlier than they started life saving efforts and made no effort to help me in getting (Angulo) exterior,” Ballew mentioned in his report.
However even when Ballew and nurses lastly received Angulo exterior, the paramedics delayed therapy even additional, insisting that everybody “decelerate” whereas they proceeded to ask questions, together with how lengthy Angulo had been in cardiac arrest and whether or not he had a do-not-resuscitate order.
The paramedics additionally requested the nurses in the event that they had been on a shift change, which appeared to instantly upset all staffers, who yelled out “No!” in unison, in keeping with Ballew’s report.
Paramedics lastly loaded Angulo into an ambulance and took him to Arrowhead Regional Medical Heart in Colton, the place he was pronounced useless at 8:38 p.m.
Might have been misinformed
Ortega mentioned the paramedics could have been misinformed and never really referring to a state COVID-19 protocol, however as a substitute a county hearth chief’s directive from greater than a yr in the past, when COVID-19 was at its peak, encouraging all first responders to attenuate contact with individuals each time attainable.
“From what I perceive, if there was an acute care state of affairs, you continue to needed to go in” to well being care amenities, Ortega mentioned.
Ballew mentioned in his report that Rialto Hearth Division personnel advised him that they had not acquired any route on the right way to proceed in such conditions “from their command.”
In a follow-up report by police dated Nov. 21, 2021, nursing employees on the acute care heart appeared bewildered by the paramedics’ refusal to enter the ability. They mentioned different Rialto Hearth Division paramedics had responded to calls there all through the pandemic and had entered the ability sporting robes and different private protecting gear, or PPE.
Shapiro mentioned the paramedics’ refusal to enter the middle delayed Angulo’s superior life assist therapy by 30 to 45 minutes, and that by the point Angulo arrived at Arrowhead, he was already useless.
“I belief that the firefighters had been vaccinated, however even when they weren’t, the difficulty is that we've got protocols for firefighters to enter amenities. They've fits and issues they’re outfitted with for emergencies,” Shapiro mentioned.
The town wouldn't disclose the names of the paramedics.
“Provided that the investigation is being independently carried out, we can't say something earlier than its completion in an effort to keep away from in any manner influencing the method or its consequence,” Ortega mentioned in an e-mail on Thursday, March 31.
Metropolis Supervisor Marcus Fuller mentioned the matter is topic to potential litigation and is being reviewed by the Metropolis Legal professional’s Workplace.
Shapiro mentioned he’s deeming the declare denied, and plans to file a lawsuit someday in April. He mentioned the $100 million demand connected to the declare was merely to guard his consumer’s finest pursuits, and that a jury in the end will determine what the right compensation ought to be.
Hearth Chief Brian Park didn't reply to requests for remark, however in an announcement in December 2021, he referred to as the police video “troubling.”
“Our Hearth Division’s mission is to offer excellence in responding to medical emergencies by way of ‘compassionate service,’ ” Park mentioned on the time.