In Orange County, California, a woman whose husband died of a heart attack says that paramedic negligence contributed to her husband's death. Christine Palmer filed her California wrongful death claim against the city of Huntington Beach. The 58-year-old widow contends that emergency workers failed to provide her husband Robert with the medical care that his condition required. Her claim is the next step toward filing a civil lawsuit.
On October 13, 2008, Christine contacted 911 because Robert, 51, was having trouble breathing. He was also experiencing numbness in his arm and severe pain in his chest. Emergency workers that arrived at the scene said that Robert was not having a heart attack. An ambulance took him to Huntington Beach Hospital but a paramedic did not go with him. Christine says that she knew something wasn't right when Robert drove off in the ambulance without paramedic.
While in the ambulance, Robert suffered a grand mal seizure and when he got to the hospital he had no pulse. Medical workers were unable to revive him and he died.
Paramedic Negligence
Like most medical professionals, paramedics, also known as emergency medical technicians (EMT's), owe their patients a standard of care. Failure to provide this level of care or any act of negligence or carelessness can be grounds for an Orange County, California medical malpractice claim or wrongful death lawsuit.
Examples of Paramedic Negligence:
• Administering the wrong medication
• Delayed arrival
• Providing the wrong medical care
• Failure to follow standard procedures for evaluating or treating a patient
• Failure to arrive at the hospital in a timely manner
• Inadequate EMT training
• Failure to bring the proper medical equipment to the scene
• Ambulance driver error
In many instances, paramedics are called to a scene because the situation is an emergency. This means that providing a patient with the wrong medical care, delayed care, or even the wrong diagnosis could prove catastrophic if not fatal.
Woman claims husband died from paramedic's negligence, OC Register,
Relate Web Resources:
Huntington Beach Official City Website
Grand Mal Seizure, MayoClinic.com
Contact our Huntington Beach lawyers to discuss your Orange County, California medical malpractice case.
