By Kim Janssen
Chicago Sun Times
Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
The Dixmoor Fire Department is investigating why it took two 911 calls and 22 minutes for paramedics to reach a woman who lived just four minutes from headquarters.
Patricia Jackson, 66, a mother of four, died during the ambulance ride to a hospital on Aug. 6, within 60 minutes of complaining of shortness of breath.
Her daughter Netty Graham has been searching for answers ever since.
The fire department has refused to release paperwork that would explain what Fire Chief Steven McCain describes as “discrepancies” in the official account of Jackson’s death.
“My mom beat colon cancer, and I hoped I’d have another 20 years with her,” Graham said.
FIRE DEPT. INVESTIGATING
“I just went into this looking for closure. But the longer it went on, and they didn’t reply to my letters or supply the paperwork they promised, the more it seemed like they had something to hide.”
Jackson’s boyfriend, Jim McGann, called 911 from Jackson’s home in the 14100 block of South Western Avenue at 2:23 a.m., Cook County sheriff’s office spokeswoman Penny Mateck said.
He called again at 2:32 a.m. because an ambulance hadn’t shown up.
Records completed by nurses at St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island show the ambulance arrived at Jackson’s home “approximately 25 minutes” before it made it to the hospital at 3:10 a.m. -- meaning it arrived at 2:45 a.m., 22 minutes after the first call.
That calculation agrees with McGann’s account, Graham said.
The Dixmoor Fire Department is in the 100 block of West 145th Street, two miles from Jackson’s home.
Jackson died of a pulmonary embolism -- a blood clot that blocks an artery in the lungs -- during the ambulance ride to St. Francis, doctors and other hospital officials told Graham. No autopsy was performed.
‘What were they doing?’
Jackson repeatedly urged McGann to hurry the ambulance along as her condition worsened, McGann told Graham. “She was aware of what was happening, and she was suffering,” Graham said of her mother.
Graham said fire department officials had promised to release documents, but they later claimed privacy laws prevented them.
McCain declined to comment beyond confirming that the case was “under investigation.”
He referred all questions to village attorney Bettie Lewis, who declined to comment further.
“I am sure the ambulance staff did everything they could to save my mother once they arrived, and I am grateful for that,” Graham said.
“She might have died if they had come quicker. Nobody knows.”
“But I just want to know why it took them so long -- what were they doing in there?”