By Frank Donnelly
Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A city Sanitation Department sergeant fatally stricken by a heart attack while on-duty in Greenridge last year might be alive today if an ambulance had not gotten lost, a lawsuit alleges.
An emergency medical services ambulance “became lost en route and experienced a delay in responding to [the] 911 emergency call” for Frank Musella on July 29, 2015, at the Sanitation garage on Muldoon Avenue, contends a civil complaint.
The alleged delay “caused, hastened and/or precipitated his death,” the complaint maintains.
The complaint does not say how long it took for the ambulance to arrive after 911 was called. The site is off the West Shore Expressway.
The suit was filed in state Supreme Court, St. George, by Musella’s wife, Alessandra Dimino Musella, who is the administrator of his estate. It seeks unspecified monetary damages from the city.
Musella, 37, a Brooklyn resident and father of two young boys, was 37 when he died, the Advance reported.
After his death, a Sanitation spokeswoman said Musella had been on patrol and mentioned the heat when he returned to his work location at the Staten Island Enforcement Division Headquarters, near Staten Island 3 garage.
He went out to his city car and was found unresponsive a short time later, Belinda Mager, the spokeswoman, told the Advance.
Colleagues called 911, an ambulance responded, and took him to Staten Island University Hospital, Prince’s Bay, where he was pronounced dead.
The spokeswoman did not say how much time had elapsed between the time Musella went to his car and when his colleagues discovered him.
After an autopsy, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office said Musella died from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the Advance reported.
The affliction entails the hardening or narrowing of the arteries, which prevents blood from flowing adequately throughout the body.
Kara Musella, the victim’s sister-in-law, previously told the Advance he had no underlying medical conditions of which his family was aware.
She said he had complained of a sore throat on the morning he died.
Alessandra Musella’s lawyer did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Said a spokesman for the city Law Department, “Mr. Musella’s death was unfortunate and sad. The case is under review.”
Copyright 2016 Staten Island Advance