By Robert Marchant
New Haven Register
GREENWICH, Conn. — The town of Greenwich is being sued by a man who claims he was seriously harmed by an injection of ketamine, a powerful sedative, following a confrontation with town police and a paramedic in 2023.
Jack Nastahowski, a Stamford resident who has lived previously in Greenwich, claims in a lawsuit filed recently in Superior Court in Stamford that he suffered severe health problems after being injected with ketamine to subdue him. The drug was administered by a member of the Greenwich Emergency Medical Service, while a police officer restrained him in a tight hold, the lawsuit contends.
The Greenwich Emergency Medical Service is being sued, along with two police officers and the town administration.
Messages left with the town attorney’s office and a lawyer representing the defendants, Michael Ryan, were not returned.
In a recent court filing, Ryan said the defense team needed “time for investigation and review” before submitting a formal response, which is expected to be filed by Sept. 15.
Nastahowski, then 59, had been struck in the head by a rock or a bottle on the night of May 28, 2023, on Ivey Street in the Byram neighborhood by someone not identified in the court case, and he was upset and agitated, the lawsuit said.
Police were called and advised Nastahowski that he needed to go to Greenwich Hospital for stitches. Nastahowski went on “to continue to roam the area and verbally vent his frustration about having been struck in the head,” the suit contends, and he eventually agreed to go to the hospital, but not in an ambulance.
The refusal to get into the ambulance led to a confrontation, the lawsuit contends, until the emergency responders “physically forced plaintiff up against an ambulance,” and “then forcibly injected the plaintiff with ketamine against plaintiff’s will.”
The suit says 400 milligrams of ketamine were injected into Nastahowski as a “chemical restraint.” The injection led to an adverse reaction due to an existing respiratory problem, the suit says. He had also “ingested an opiate earlier that day,” the suit says.
When Nastahowski arrived at the emergency room, he was in “acute respiratory failure,” his lawsuit contends, and he required a mechanical ventilator for his respiratory system to function. He spent six days in the emergency department, according to the lawsuit, which also says Nastahowski “suffered ongoing significant physical, emotional, and psychological harm.”
He was also given nine stitches for the wound to his head at the hospital, the lawsuit said. The suit also states that Nastahowski was never charged with a crime in the May 28 incident.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Lindy Urso, says the paramedic’s use of ketamine fell “below the standard of care that ought to be used by paramedics, EMTs, or other medical professionals in a pre-hospital setting.”
“The defendants simply wanted to sedate the plaintiff so that the ‘incident’ would be over, the plaintiff would ‘shut up,’ and all defendants could move on with their evenings,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit does not specify monetary damages being sought.
Urso, the plaintiff’s attorney, wrote in an email this week, " Mr. Nastahowski, who ultimately needed just nine stitches to repair the cut he received after he was assaulted, was literally almost killed by the defendants — and all because he did not want to go to the hospital on a stretcher in an ambulance. He looks forward to holding the responsible parties accountable for his near-death experience.”
Nastahowski has eight separate cases pending against him involving driving offenses and several misdemeanors, according to the Superior Court judicial website. In June 2024 , he was charged by Greenwich police with misdemeanor counts of trespass, assault and threatening, according to the judicial website. In February 2024 , he was charged with a felony for allegedly violating a protective order. Those cases are pending.
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