The parents of a man wrongly declared dead say the county owes them
By Titan Barksdale
The News & Observer
Copyright 2007 The News and Observer
FRANKLIN COUNTY, N.C. — The parents of a Franklin County man who was wrongly declared dead, zipped in a body bag and shipped to the morgue are suing former and current Franklin County medical officials.
Larry D. Green says that medical officials inadequately checked his vital signs after he was hit by a car in January 2005. If they had properly checked him, he would not be permanently injured, the lawsuit says.
Green lives in a nursing home in Wilson and has permanent injuries. Efforts to reach his parents failed.
The lawsuit, filed this month, names as defendants J.B. Perdue, Franklin County’s medical examiner, emergency responders who handled Green at the scene, Franklin County Emergency Medical Services and Louisburg Rescue and EMS.
Perdue, reached by telephone at home Thursday, would say little about the lawsuit. But he did say it was not his job to determine whether Green was dead or alive.
“The medical examiner is called after death,” Perdue said. “Someone else pronounced his death, and the medical examiner is called to investigate the cause and manner of that death. He does not pronounce people dead, and that’s all I have to say on that.”
William Hill, a Greensboro lawyer, is representing Franklin County and its EMS departments, said Darnell Batton, Franklin County’s attorney.
Hill did not return a phone call to his office Thursday.
Green was walking across U.S. 401 north of Louisburg when he was hit.
Emergency responders dispatched to the scene didn’t detect breath or pulse, but they failed to use an electrocardiogram monitor or a stethoscope, which would have shown that Green’s heart was beating.
At the morgue
Green was later taken to the morgue, where Perdue saw his eye twitching but did not reassess him, the lawsuit says. Perdue had also gone to the accident scene.
Perdue should have checked to see whether Green was in fact dead before beginning a forensic evaluation, the lawsuit says. He also disregarded signs that Green was alive such as seeing the eye twitches and chest movement, the lawsuit says.
“He held on to his erroneous conclusion that Green was dead ... after he and others observed Green’s right eyelid twitch several times,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says that the paramedics and emergency medical technicians violated policy in handling Green.
“Franklin County EMS mandated that resuscitation efforts should be undertaken immediately ‘if doubt exists,’ ” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit was filed by Charles Becton, a Raleigh lawyer. Attempts to reach Becton were unsuccessful.
Larry Alston, Green’s father, has said publicly that the error created an emotional challenge for the family. He has said that the family struggles with the possibility that Green might never fully recover.
The lawsuit also says that Alston and Ruby Kelly, Green’s mother, deserve money for emotion distress.
“Kelly resides across the street from the scene of the accident,” the lawsuit says. “She heard the crash, called 911 ... and suffered severe trauma and distress when informed that Green was dead.”