By Jeff Hood, Lodi Bureau Chief
The Record (Stockton, Calif.)
Published Tuesday, Jun 13, 2006
A county investigation found medical personnel at the scene and at San Joaquin General Hospital failed to follow official protocol when they mistakenly declared a woman dead after she was struck by a freight train in downtown Lodi on April 24.
Not only did the ambulance crew from American Medical Response incorrectly assess the condition of Lillian Flaherty, 31, but the hospital doctor advising the paramedics also didn’t follow procedures, according to Dan Burch, the county’s Emergency Medical System administrator, who announced the findings Monday.
San Joaquin County coroner’s deputies called to retrieve Flaherty’s body discovered she was still breathing nearly an hour after she was declared dead by an AMR paramedic, at which point she was given aid and sent to the UC Davis Medical Center, where she died two days later of massive head injuries.
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