A crew member pronounces a victim with a suicide note dead when he’s actually alive
By Bill Stewart
The Oregonian
Copyright 2007 The Oregonian
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
VANCOUVER, Wash. — A Vancouver Fire Department paramedic has been stripped of his accreditation after he failed to recognize that an apparent suicide had failed and that the victim was still alive.
Jesse Avery, 30, of Vancouver, who has been with the department nearly four years, was placed on 30 days unpaid leave and demoted to firefighter, Fire Chief Don Bivins said late Tuesday.
Avery also was placed on “professional standards probation,” which means he could be dismissed for any act of poor judgment or conduct in the next three to five years, Bivins said.
According to the fire chief, Avery was part of a medical response team called to a home in west Vancouver on Dec. 3. Avery went into a detached garage, where he found an itinerant man with an apparent suicide note in his lap. Avery did a quick assessment of the man, who was described as unconscious and unresponsive, and pronounced him dead.
The fire crew, including Avery, was called back an hour later when investigators from the Clark County medical examiner’s office realized he was breathing. The man was taken to a hospital, treated and released “and apparently is well,” Bivins said.
Bivins said federal privacy laws prevent him from revealing the patient’s name, age, injuries, tests Avery performed or even whether a suicide attempt occurred.