Death From Gurney Fall Prompts NY Suit
The estate of a woman who died after falling off a gurney is suing the fire department that was transporting her to the hospital. Anne E. Stahlberg was being transported by a North Bellmore Fire Department ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bethpage, New York on January 1, 2017. As the gurney was being brought into the hospital, Stahlberg fell from the gurney, suffering traumatic head injuries that resulted in her death.
The suit was filed last week by the Administratrix of Stahlber’s estate in New York Supreme Court for Nassau County. It names the North Bellmore Fire Department, the North Bellmore Fire District, and the Commissioners of the North Bellmore Fire District as defendants.
The complaint alleges that the firefighters were “careless, reckless and negligent” in transporting Stahlberg, in failing to properly secure her to the gurney, and failing ensure the gurney was under proper control. It further claims the fire department was negligent in training and hiring its personnel.
From the complaint:
[T]he said defendants, their agents, servants and/or employees were careless, reckless and negligent
- in the ownership, operation, maintenance, management and control of the aforesaid ambulance and the equipment contained therein;
- in failing to properly transport the plaintiff’s decedent;
- in failing to adhere to proper guidelines and protocols in transporting the plaintiff’s decedent;
- in failing to provide sufficient personnel to transport the plaintiff’s decedent;
- in carelessly, recklessly and negligently causing, allowing and permitting the aforesaid gurney to tip over on its side causing the plaintiff’s decedent to strike her head on the cement thereat;
- in failing to properly strap the plaintiff’s decedent onto the gurney before being transported out of said ambulance into the hospital;
- in failing to utilize safety devices for the proper protection of the plaintiff’s decedent, including, but not limited to, straps, belts, braces, pulleys or ramps;
- in failing to ascertain the plaintiff’s decedent was safely secured prior to moving her;
- in failing to have the gurney under reasonable and proper control;
- in carelessly, recklessly and negligently placing the plaintiff’s decedent in a dangerous and hazardous situation;
- in failing to properly train its personnel;
- in hiring incompetent personnel; in failing to protect the plaintiff’s decedent;
- in failing to take the proper means and precautions to avoid and guard against the happening of this occurrence;
- that defendants knew, or by reasonable inspection thereof, should have known of the dangerous and defective condition existing thereat and failed to remedy the same;
- in failing to exercise due care and caution in the operation, maintenance, management and control of the aforesaid ambulance and gurney therein;
- in deviating from good and property safety protocols; in failing to act as reasonable and prudent persons under the circumstances then and there existing;
- in failing in their non delegable duties to the plaintiff herein;
- and in other ways acting in a dangerous, careless and reckless manner.
Here is a copy of the complaint: Burke v No Bellmore
First, sincere condolences to the family of Ms. Stahlberg’s, on her death…..or was it a murder by negligent EMT’s? Second, this incident is a Classic Example of a patient’s death being a necessary evil to potentially change ingrained, dangerous practices in EMS. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I and others have taught EMT’s about the safe operation of a stretcher, and the actions that are necessary to ensure the patient’s safety. Despite that, every day patients are moved by EMS crews with their stretcher in a full, upright position, and/or without a harness wrapped around the patient’s chest. In my opinion, there is nothing unusual about the events that led to Ms. Stahlberg’s death, she just happened to find the lazy EMT’s who spin the wheel of Russian Roulette, every day, and whose number finally came up. While some characters might be disturbed by the fact that they contributed to a patient’s death, I doubt that the EMT’s who caused Ms. Stahlberg to die, have any remorse. From my perspective, you can knock your head against the wall, until you have no head left, trying to improve ingrained,dangerous practices in EMS. The only solution that I can think of – – to perhaps, influence reform – – is for some number of patients to die needless, negligent deaths. And, by the way, may I remind those who have been around this business for a long time, when EMS was an extension of the medical community, and part of a Medical Home, sound, health care practices migrated to EMS. In my opinion, as EMS has inched its way further and further away from its once Medical Home, bad practices have become the norm, not the exception. If you’ve not read about the Normalization of Deviance, it’s worth a read. It will help you to make sense of the senseless practices inherent in EMS today.