By Bill Carey
EMS1
MEDWAY, Maine — The town of Medawy has reached a settlement with the family of a man who died after EMTs allegedly did not provide him oxygen and failed to secure him to a gurney, allowing him to fall off.
Susan LaPorte, the wife of Kenneth LaPorte Sr. filed a lawsuit after her husband died, alleging negligence from the town that operated Medway Ambulance Service, the Bangor Daily News reported.
Details of the settlement were included in court records.
Before LaPorte stopped breathing, the EMT who responded to his medical emergency forced him to walk an “unreasonable distance” to the ambulance parked outside his home at around 3 a.m. when he was “experiencing low oxygen levels” of around 74% on April 16, 2022, the lawsuit stated.
Then, the EMT placed LaPorte on a gurney, but never strapped him to it before she went to get an oxygen tube. As the EMT untangled the oxygen tubing, LaPorte stopped breathing.
When the EMT lifted the gurney, LaPorte’s family watched him fall off and hit his head on the ambulance’s bumper and the ground.
LaPorte’s cause of death was listed as acute respiratory failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Medway discontinued its ambulance service after LaPorte’s death.
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