Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against the City of Lockport, New York alleging that the delay of a mutual aid ambulance contributed to the death of an alderman’s mother.
Jeanette A. Lombardi, 75, died on September 20, 2012 after suffering an anaphylactic reaction to medication she received during a dental visit. She was the mother of Alderman John Lombardi III.
At the time the fire department’s two ambulances were tied up, one on a run and one on a training exercise. A mutual aid request was initially sent to the South Lockport Fire Company, who was unable to respond. A request was then sent to the Wrights Corners Fire Company. By the time an ambulance finally arrived Mrs. Lombardi was unresponsive and later died.
The complaint alleges that two officers who made the decision to request mutual aid had the discretion to send a city unit, and that both ambulance returned in service right about the time of Mrs. Lombardi’s 911 call.
Attorney Gregory Stamm, who filed the suit on behalf of the Lombardi estate, was quoted by The Buffalo News as commenting: “I still haven’t had a chance to ask people in the City of Lockport their side of the story, but I was able to piece together the timeline from the various fire departments and the sheriff’s 911 dispatch summary. … We feel there’s an unacceptable gap in time from when the City of Lockport was notified and when somebody finally showed up, because the City of Lockport did not have a truck in service. I’m not sure what they were doing.”
Certainly I’d be much obliged to any of our NY friends and attorneys who can supply a copy of the complaint.
