THE CITY OF SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA, near San Diego, has been held liable by a jury trial for negligence, invasion of privacy and trespass for leaving a dead man in his house.
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Natalie and Ken Collet
The bizarre incident took place three years ago, on Oct. 6, 2004. The city fire department responded to a call for a 58-year-old man who was down. While they were trying to resuscitate him, they removed him to the ambulance and continued CPR in the driveway.
They told the man’s daughter that they would be transporting him to Tri City Hospital and she got into her car and proceeded to drive there to meet them.
In the meantime, the paramedics failed to resuscitate the man and subsequently got a telephone declaration of death by the medical examiner. The admitting nurse at the hospital told them not to transport since the hospital would be refusing admission.
So with the permission of a sheriff’s deputy, a paramedic found an unlocked window, crawled through and opened the front door. The ambulance crew then carried the body back inside, laid it on the floor covered with a sheet, and left a FD chaplain to stay there and await the daughter’s eventual return.
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Fire officials defended their action, saying they were following county procedures by not transporting a dead body.
“We in the fire department don’t have approval over once a person is deceased what to do with that person,” said San Marcos Fire Department Chief Larry Webb.
The Superior Court jury awarded her approx. $236,000 damages for the negligence, trespass and invasion of privacy claims.
The North County Times has the full STORY.
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