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NY woman claims ambulance company caused mother to suffocate

Cause of victim’s death due to positional asphyxia

By John O’Brien
The Post-Standard

FULTON, N.Y. — Oswego County sheriff’s deputies handcuffed a combative, hallucinating woman behind her back to protect her from herself when they responded to a suicide attempt at her home in 2006.

Dorothy Caniff, 42, of Fulton, was strapped face down on a gurney after Menter Ambulance workers arrived May 25, 2006, according to police reports.

In the ambulance, Caniff went into cardiac arrest and died at A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital, in Fulton. A medical examiner ruled that she died because of the position she’d been placed in: prone, arms behind her back and strapped onto the gurney.

Full story: Months later family learned Caniff’s death was from positional asphyxia