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Man dies in ambulance, so medics leave body on driveway

Saturday, October 14, 2000

By JACK HOPKINS

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

When Bardsley died of a heart attack on the way to a Puyallup

hospital, paramedics decided against finishing the long drive to the medical

facility.

Instead, they returned to Bardsley's home and left his body, strapped to a

medical board and partially covered with a blanket, outside on his driveway.

And for eight long hours, that's where the 76-year-old man remained --

right next to the family's garbage cans.

Bardsley

" This is the most inhumane thing I have ever seen or heard of in my entire

life, " said Bardsley, the man's daughter-in-law. " I think it's horrible

what they have done. "

Today, 12 days after Bardsley died, no one can seem to explain why

paramedics chose to take the body back to his home in Ashford, just west of

Mount Rainier National Park, rather than following normal procedures and

continuing the trip to the hospital.

Even County Coroner Terry has a hard time understanding why.

" It definitely, beyond a shadow of doubt, was not handled appropriately, "

said , who has served as county coroner for nearly 20 years.

Paramedics should have taken Bardsley's body to the hospital or to the

nearby fire station, said.

" We have had people die on the way to the hospital before, and they were

always taken to the hospital until local enforcement people could arrive, "

said. " Then, the body would be released to the funeral home. The body is

never, ever taken back to the house. That is totally unacceptable. "

On Oct. 2, Bardsley and his 73-year-old wife, Eileen, were home alone when

Bardsley began having chest pains. Shortly before midnight, the family called

the local volunteer fire station.

Responding firefighters were joined at the Bardsley home by paramedics

from Parkland, just south of Tacoma. They began transporting Bardsley to a

hospital in Puyallup, about 50 miles away.

A few minutes into the trip, Bardsley died, and the paramedics decided to

return his body to his house until it could be removed by a driver from a

funeral home in Chehalis in County.

They said they didn't want to take Bardsley's body inside because his

widow suffers from Alzheimer's disease and appeared confused.

A deputy coroner for County remained nearby, but when Bardsley

and her husband, Dennis, arrived about three hours later, they didn't see the

deputy coroner, they said.

A short time later, the deputy coroner told upset family members that they

couldn't move Bardsley's body from the driveway. So family members waited in

anguish and disbelief inside the Bardsley home.

The deputy coroner could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The paramedics who were transporting Bardsley's body to the hospital were

employed by Pierce County. Neither Sinclair, a Pierce County assistant fire

chief, nor Capt. Bob Hudspeth could be reached yesterday.

But KING-TV reported that Sinclair told them earlier that it wasn't

" appropriate " for paramedics to transport a dead body.

" It's a tragic event, but in a resource-poor area, there's not a lot of

options, " Sinclair told the television station.

Dennis and Bardsley say that explanation doesn't satisfy them. They

say they may never get over the shock of finding Bardsley lying in the

driveway.

And they can't understand why paramedics wouldn't at least bring the man

they all loved back inside the house.

" We expected to find an ambulance there " Bardsley said. " But he was

lying right in the driveway where someone could have run over him. "

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P-I reporter Jack Hopkins can be reached at or

jackhopkins@...

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