A carbon monoxide leak kills two tourists in Ocean City, MD on June 27, 2006. This week a federal judge dismissed the $20 million civil lawsuit against Ocean City paramedics, stating no “special relationship” was forged between the defendants and the victims.
The incident lead to a town ordinance requiring CO alarms to be installed in hotels and motels in the Eastern Shore resort.
911dispatch.com posted a .pdf of lawsuit (HERE)
CONFUSION AT THE SCENE LEADS TO NO PATIENT CONTACT
Ocean City EMS conducted an investigation and provided a timetable at a July 13, 2006 media briefing.
The following timeline comes from the 2006 briefing augmented with details within the 2009 lawsuit.
- 9-1-1 received a call around 9:27 am from Room 125 where caller stated “Something is wrong with my daughter and I, we just don’t feel well at all. Would you please send somebody up here?.” The caller also said that they could not breathe, and they had a pounding headache and just didn’t feel like they were able to stay awake.
- First paramedic ambulance dispatched at 09:30 am.
- Second paramedic ambulance dispatched at 09:31.
- First paramedic ambulance arrived at hotel at 9:32 am, second unit arrives 9:33 am.
- Yvonne Boughter, a nurse on vacation with her family, placed her first 9-1-1 call at 09:43 am. Boughter told the dispatcher her family had been ill all night. Husband was having trouble breathing, speaking and vomiting. Daughter was vomiting. She gave the dispatcher her room number, 121, and confirmed it later in the conversation, and also provided her cell phone number before lapsing back into unconsciousness.
- (The 2006 OC EMS timeline states “At 9:45 a.m., another 911 call was received, this time from room 121 of the Day’s Inn for four victims complaining of what they believed to be food poisoning.”)
- Third paramedic ambulance dispatched at 9:48 am in response to Boughter 9-1-1 call. Dispatch said the caller was in “Room one-two-one, 121″
- Third paramedic ambulance arrives at 9:54 am, was directed by the first paramedic unit to assist them with the four patients found in Rooms 125 and 127.
- All three ambulances used to transport patients from 125 and 127. Transports made at 09:54, 09:55 and 10:00.
- (From 2006 OC EMS timeline: “Up to this point, all four victims transported to the hospital were from the same family sharing rooms 125 and 127. While all these events were transpiring, no paramedics ever responded to room 121.”)
- At 1:54 pm Yvonne Boughter placed another 9-1-1 call: “Yeah … um … I called you earlier and nobody came yet,” she told the dispatcher, according to the complaint. “My husband has passed away, my daughter looks like she passed away also. She’s mottled and cold to the touch.”
- A paramedic ambulance crew was dispatched and entered Room 121 at 2:02 pm, the first contact with Boughter.
NO CONTACT = NO SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
Senior U. S. District Court Judge William Nickerson granted the Town’s motion to dismiss the case. In the opinion document, the judge cited a handful of cases in which the special relationship doctrine was evoked, most involving a law enforcement officer’s duty to render aid to a 911 caller.
In the absence of a special relationship between the defendants and the Boughter family, there is no legally recognized duty, and thus, no sustainable claim of negligence,” Nickerson’s opinion reads. “For these reasons, the Court finds the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case must be granted. …
Here, the court must conclude in the case at bar the defendants took no affirmative action, as Maryland courts have understood that term, to give rise to a special relationship. A 911 call was received and a response team was dispatched. It never reached the Boughter family. As the Maryland Court of Appeals has made clear, that is insufficient to create a special relationship.
The Maryland Coast Dispatch has details from an article posted today: HERE
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
Home-Based Nukes ?
CommentsCommentary proffered by S. Marshall:
You think things are moving pretty fast nowadays in the Fire Service? It sure seems like it to me. I was in the Fire Service in the 70’s through the early 90’s…until I decided it was time for you youngsters to take over. Compared to fire fighting of the 70’s, today’s Fire Service is like science fiction or maybe rocket science. The technology now in use was only a dream in some designers mind…or in some cases, the designers hadn’t even been born yet!
The next big challenge as I see it, is the technological advances on our battle grounds. You’ve had to deal with changes in how buildings are constructed, new hazards in freight transport, how cars are constructed, and even how they are powered. So what’s next? How about nuclear reactors in the home?
Sounds insane doesn’t it? This is no “Back To The Future” Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor with a flux capacitor. This is something being planned and marketed in the US and it’s coming to a home in your first due and probably sooner than you think.
Toshiba has designed a small reactor called the 4S. It’s designed to power a small community for about 30 years at a very low cost. So what happens when you are dispatched for a melt down? Or more likely, for some yahoo who got three sheets to the wind and has now driven his 4X4 into the containment structure…and guess who gets to save him? That’s right, you!
In reality, the reactor is designed to be buried about 100 feet below grade and capped with concrete. It’s a sealed unit with “no user serviceable parts”. Once the fuel is depleted, it has to be dug up and taken back to the factory for servicing and a new unit left in place.
And this is from a company who had a serious problem with laptop batteries bursting into flame!
Still think it’s waaaaay off in the future? Galena Alaska is scheduled to be the test bed site for just such a reactor. It is intended to be a 10 milliwatt reactor..with a $25 million dollar price tag because it will be the first and will be used as a reference site for later installations. To their credit, Toshiba will pay for nearly all of the construction costs at this particular site.
So now on top of the hazardous materials in trucks by the thousands, extremely heavy freight train traffic all over the country, cars that are powered with gigantic batteries and couches that will cause a flash over with the mere thought of a fire anywhere near it, you get to worry about becoming a nuclear technician.
I’m not here to offer up expertise in how to control a runaway reactor sitting on the corner of Main and South Streets, just to remind you that as confusing as things are right now, they are about to get a whole lot worse.
Toshiba and some other manufacturers are also planning an even smaller unit that will power a single household. Imagine, a nuclear reactor sitting in every house, right next to the furnace! I think I will wait until safe fission is available.
We may need to return to the days of lime green fire apparatus so that the paint matches the glow we will get!
Firegeezer recommends that you read more about Galena’s upcoming move to Micro-Nuclear power HERE.