| Editor’s note: FireRescue1 Fire Medicine columnist Mike McEvoy suggested in an article earlier this year that formal training in death pronouncement would help pre-hospital providers avoid the problems outlined in the following story. |
The Associated Press
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — An investigation has begun into an incident in which an apparent suicide victim was mistakenly declared dead by a city fire department emergency medical technician.
The Fire Department began the investigation Tuesday just hours after the victim, whose name has not been released, was taken to the hospital after a worker from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, who had come to retrieve the body, realized the man wasn’t dead.
Fire Chief Michael Grant confirmed an investigation was under way, but declined to discuss any details.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment on the circumstances,” Grant said. “That’s what I’m investigating.”
The police and fire departments were sent to an address on Greene Street about 6 a.m. to deal with a water emergency after the landlord called 911, concerned about running water inside an apartment, police said.
Firefighters found the man in a cold bath. Police later said they believed it was an attempt at suicide. They called for a fire ambulance and fire engine for medical assistance.
Before the units arrived, the ranking fire officer at the scene, an emergency medical technician, pronounced the man dead.