By Tom Fontaine and Timothy Puko
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH — Questions about how Donald Kreutzer died are compounding his family’s grief, a grandson says.
“You just wonder if things could have been different if everything had gone according to plan,” said Nick Gromo, 24, of Carrick.
Kreutzer, 73, a Pittsburgh native who lived in suburban Atlanta, died Sunday after collapsing in the Doubletree Hotel at 1 Bigelow Square, Downtown. An Allegheny County 911 dispatcher erroneously sent paramedics to Bigelow Boulevard in Oakland, delaying the response time by at least several minutes, county officials said.
Even without the delay, paramedics would have been unlikely to save Kreutzer, Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams said. Kreutzer died from heart disease, and officials did not perform an autopsy because there was no evidence of a crime, he said.
Fallout from Sunday’s mistake and other high-profile 911 blunders — including another address mix-up Sunday over the location of a McKees Rocks house fire in which an 84-year-old woman died — prompted county officials to suspend one dispatcher, investigate at least two others and promise a review of its emergency dispatch system and training. The officials, including Executive Dan Onorato, have defended the $10 million spent on computer upgrades to the dispatch system.
A county spokeswoman said Onorato and Emergency Services Chief Bob Full were not available for comment Wednesday.
“We just want to know what happened,” Gromo said.
Kreutzer came to Pittsburgh over the weekend to visit family and attend the Steelers’ opener against the Atlanta Falcons.
Kreutzer met friends at Station Square on Saturday night, then spoke with Gromo’s brother, Darrell, over the phone to finalize arrangements for tailgating in the morning. He collapsed a short time later. He was pronounced dead at 2:37 a.m. Sunday.
“For being 73, he was real spunky,” Gromo said.
He said his grandfather went skydiving for his 70th birthday.
Rose Marie Presutti, Sunday’s house fire victim, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which makes breathing increasingly difficult, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Family members told McKees Rocks police that she might have been smoking in bed, Chief Robert Cifrulak said.
The 911 operator entered her town as Pittsburgh, delaying responders by 52 seconds, county officials said. They have not concluded whether the delay was critical, and Williams declined comment, saying he didn’t know much about the case.
County Emergency Services is waiting for the Presutti autopsy report to finalize its investigation, said Alvin Henderson, assistant chief of operations. They expect that to happen by week’s end. Officials said they believe the fire was accidental.
Rick Grejda, business agent for Local 668 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 911 operators, declined comment.
There have been four cases in the past four months of 911 operator mistakes causing response delays. The county had trouble with the dispatch system it activated in August, but officials have said the new system did not cause the recent problems.
The county is not required to provide data about dispatch system performance to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, agency spokeswoman Ruth Miller said.
State regulations say 90 percent of calls should be answered within 10 seconds. Call-takers are required to verify the location of an incident, the caller’s phone number and the nature of the emergency within 60 seconds of fielding a call 90 percent of the time.
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