Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
The family of a woman who died last summer when an ambulance was dispatched to the wrong address, has filed suit against the dispatch center and an Illinois fire department.
Laurelyn Wagner-Pitts, 60, suffered a cardiac arrest on July 30, 2016. Her husband, Randy Pitts, called 911 and requested an ambulance from the Western Will County Communication Center. The dispatcher had some difficulty with the address and initially sent an ambulance from the Homer Fire Department to a different location.
Approximately 10 minutes later the mistake was realized and an ambulance from the Northwest Homer Fire and Ambulance Protection District was dispatched. By the time it arrived, Wagner-Pitts had been without oxygen for an estimated 17 minutes. She passed away in August when her family took her off a ventilator.
The suit was filed by Wagner-Pitts’s two sons, Matthew and Eric Schlottman. It names the Western Will County Communication Center and Northwest Homer Fire and Ambulance Protection District as defendants. More on the story.
