Lockhart medic resigned after declaring person dead, even though victim lived

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Lockhart medic resigned after declaring person dead, even though

victim lived

EMS director said 'everybody did the best they could' in accident this

month.

By Tony Plohetski

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A City of Lockhart paramedic resigned following an accident last month

in which a medic declared a person dead, even though the victim was

revived a short time later and taken to University Medical Center at

Brackenridge.

Lockhart EMS Director Tucker would not say Wednesday if the

paramedic who resigned, who she identified as Jerry Dickerson, is the

same medic who declared the victim dead at the scene of the April 17

accident near Texas 71 and U.S. 183, southeast of Austin.

The person's condition was not known Wednesday. An accident report

describing the crash, which would list the names of victims, was not

immediately available from the Texas Department of Transportation.

" I think everybody did the best they could do in a bad situation, "

Tucker said.

Dickerson could not be reached for comment.

Tucker said that the medic who declared the person dead was driving an

ambulance to Austin with a patient from an unrelated call when he

drove upon the accident.

She said the driver of that ambulance evaluated three patients, two of

whom were reviewed at the scene and released. The medic declared a

third victim dead and reported that finding to a second ambulance crew

after they arrived at the scene moments later.

Tucker said that crew canceled the STAR Flight helicopter based on the

report.

However, she said the second paramedic team decided to try to

resuscitate the person because of the victim's age and possibility

that the person's organs could be donated.

She said the person's pulse returned and that the victim was taken by

ambulance to the hospital.

Tucker said she did not know how much time lapsed between the person

being declared dead and when the second team of paramedics began

resuscitation efforts.

Tucker said that EMS protocol requires responding paramedics to check

a victim's pulse. When asked if the first paramedic did so, she said,

" I was not there. "

In December, an Austin woman was mistakenly declared dead by San

paramedics, who did not check her pulse after a car crash.

a , 23, was left along a highway for more than an hour until

officials from the Bexar County medical examiner's office arrived to

pronounce her dead and retrieve her body.

She later died.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/01/0501medic.html