Excerpts from NBCChicago.com:
A Chicago Fire Department investigation is still incomplete over a year after paramedics failed to treat a gunshot victim as he lay in the street dying, although the department says it has new rules to avoid the tragic error in the future.
Erin Carey, 17, initially survived a gunshot wound to his head early June 18, 2018, but was placed under a white sheet by paramedics and left for dead for over an hour, according to a lawsuit filed June 17 by Carey’s family in Cook County Circuit Court. In the lawsuit, Carey’s family alleges that paramedics could have assessed Carey and taken him to a hospital for proper care and at least a dignified transition into death. Instead, the paramedics and Chicago Fire Department operated on a conscious disregard for basic training when they placed a white sheet over teen, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit seeks damages to prevent a repetition of these circumstances and also alleges that Carey most likely would have survived if he had been treated sooner.
Five other people were also shot — one of them fatally. Shortly after the shooting, TV cameras captured Carey moving under the sheet for at least 15 minutes before a paramedic uncovered him and began CPR. Carey died hours later at a hospital.
A possible reason paramedics mistakenly left Carey untreated was the piecemeal way the shooting was announced to emergency personnel. The fire department was reviewing radio transmissions to see why all six victims were not called in at once, but instead separately, leading to fewer resources being directed to the scene.
After the shooting, the department began investigating how paramedics mistakenly thought Carey was dead, and it changed the way paramedics assess shooting victims and anyone else injured. The fire department took measures shortly after the incident to prevent another death like Carey’s. Paramedics are now required to attach heart monitors to every patient to confirm their vital signs.
