By John Davis
The Sarasota Herald Tribune
NORTH PORT, Fla. — A woman who now lives with a heart defibrillator implant is suing North Port Fire Rescue for allegedly delaying her care.
Beverly Ishac, 52, filed a lawsuit against the city, three doctors, Englewood Community Hospital and others stemming from a January 2008 heart attack two days after she saw Dr. Robert Gutierrez for nausea and light-headedness.
The suit, filed this month, claims that Gutierrez told Ishac to eat better and sent her home. But on Jan. 20, 2008, Ishac’s arm began hurting after a meal. She called for a North Port ambulance and was taken to Englewood Hospital, according to the suit.
She was having a heart attack and required a cardiac catheterization from another hospital, but North Port Fire Rescue allegedly refused to take her, making her wait three hours before another company took her.
City officials have declined to comment on the pending litigation, but confirmed that North Port was notified of Ishac’s intent to sue in September.
Ishac, through attorney Scott Liberman in Fort Lauderdale, claims that she “will continue to suffer pain, physical handicap and permanent injury in the future, and will be further compelled to expend great sums for medical care.”
Gutierrez, doctors David Cislo, Frank Novy, and Gulf Coast Emergency Physicians are named in the suit, though the complaint did not mention any city workers by name.
The suit accuses North Port of negligence and carelessness for refusing to transport Ishac during her heart attack. She is seeking more than $15,000 in the case.
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