EMS official says person was later revived by another paramedic
By Tony Plohetski
American-Statesman
Copyright 2008 American-Statesman
LOCKHART, Texas — A City of Lockhart paramedic declared a person dead even though the victim was revived a short time later and taken to University Medical Center at Brackenridge, the city’s Emergency Medical Services director said Wednesday.
The paramedic, Jerry Dickerson, said he is being wrongly accused of declaring the person dead and that he was never questioned about how he handled the call near Texas 21 and U.S. 183. He said he resigned the day of the April 17 incident for “ongoing personal harassment from the management of Lockhart EMS.”
He declined to say how he evaluated the patient.
Lockhart City Manager Vance Rodgers said the city is investigating the incident.
The patient’s condition was not known Wednesday. An accident report describing the crash, which would list the names of victims, was not immediately available from the Texas Department of Transportation.
“I think everybody did the best they could do in a bad situation,” EMS Director Melanie Tucker said.
Tucker said that the medic who declared the person dead was driving an ambulance to Austin with a patient from an unrelated call when he came upon the accident. She did not identify Dickerson as the driver, but Dickerson said Wednesday that he was the paramedic involved.
Tucker said the driver of that ambulance evaluated three patients, two of whom were reviewed at the scene and released. The medic declared a third person dead and reported that finding to a second ambulance crew after it arrived at the scene moments later.
Tucker said that crew canceled a STAR Flight helicopter based on that report.
However, she said, the second paramedic team decided to try to resuscitate the person because of the person’s age and the possibility that organs could be donated.
She said the person’s pulse returned and that the person was taken by ambulance to the hospital.
Tucker said she did not know how much time lapsed between the person being declared dead and the second team of paramedics starting resuscitation efforts.
Tucker said that EMS protocol requires responding paramedics to check for a victim’s pulse. When asked if the first paramedic did so, she said, “I was not there.”
The American-Statesman has requested documents relating to the incident.
In December, an Austin woman was mistakenly declared dead by San Antonio paramedics, who did not check her pulse after a car crash.
Erica Smith, 23, was left along a highway for more than an hour until officials from the Bexar County medical examiner’s office arrived to pronounce her dead and retrieve her body.
She later died.