Patient who needed oxygen was removed from ambulance, collapsed and died, suit says
A man struggling to breathe called for an ambulance on a November morning. When one arrived, two EMTs helped him inside. Then they refused to treat him, according to a federal lawsuit filed over his death.
Julian L. Coleman, 48, needed oxygen as the EMTs working for American Medical Response denied him treatment and called for police instead in Rochester, New York, on Nov. 30, 2023, the lawsuit says.
Inside the ambulance, Coleman “complained of shortness of breath and other symptoms” and “became agitated and anxious,” attorneys representing Coleman’s family wrote in a complaint filed June 27.
“In a moment of desperate panic,” Coleman grabbed onto one of the EMTs arms, causing her to get “upset and angry,” the complaint says.
That’s when she stopped assessing Coleman, according to the complaint, which says she then placed a distress call and asked Rochester Police Department officers for protection.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him but he will not get out of our truck,” an EMT is heard saying to an officer who arrived at the scene, according to police body camera footage published by WROC.
“And he’s gotta go.”
The responding Rochester officer ordered Coleman out of the ambulance, the video shows, as Coleman tells him that he can’t breathe.
“I hear ya…probably would try to control myself a little bit better. I’m not gonna grab on anybody, you know what I mean?” the officer told Coleman, according to the footage. In response, Coleman is heard saying he tried to grab onto a door.
Afterward, Coleman is seen helping himself out of the ambulance, the video shows.
Coleman was “in obvious physical distress and demonstrably suffering from severe shortness of breath,” the complaint says.
He was ordered by the officer to sit on a bench on the sidewalk — moments before he collapsed and became unresponsive, according to the complaint.
The officers on the scene and the EMTs ignored Coleman, who was lying on the ground, for about three minutes, the complaint says.
When an officer checked on him, Coleman had no pulse, according to the complaint.
After about 15 minutes of resuscitation attempts, Coleman’s pulse returned and he was given oxygen before he was transported to Rochester General Hospital, according to the complaint.
But it was too late, as he “suffered permanent and irreversible brain damage due to a lack of oxygen” and remained unconscious, the complaint says.
He was taken off life support, as recommended by his doctors, and died Dec. 15, according to the complaint.
‘This entire tragedy was avoidable’
One of Coleman’s four children, Julian D. Green, is suing the city of Rochester, the city’s police officers who responded to his father, American Medical Response and multiple AMR employees.
Green “and his three siblings were devastated by the loss of their father,” Stephen G. Schwarz, one of the attorneys representing the family, told McClatchy News in an email on July 1. “Watching the video showing how he died only compounded their suffering.”
AMR told McClatchy News on July 1 that the company “does not comment on pending litigation.”
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans and Rochester Police Chief David M. Smith didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment on July 1.
At a January news conference, Evans addressed Coleman’s death, saying he was informed of the death by Coleman’s family that month, WROC reported.
“I was not pleased that I was learning about this just now,” Evans said, according to the outlet.
He said the residents of Rochester “deserve to be treated humanely.”
The parent company of AMR, Global Medical Response, said in a statement in January that it “launched an internal investigation” into the circumstances surrounding Coleman’s death, according to WROC.
The lawsuit accuses the company’s EMTs and the Rochester police officers of depriving Coleman of medical care in violation of his civil rights and of negligence.
“This entire tragedy was avoidable had the AMR personnel provided him with the supplemental oxygen he needed,” Schwarz said, adding that Coleman’s “panic reaction, which apparently caused the EMTs to call the police, was entirely consistent with someone in his condition.”
“If the EMTs truly felt threatened by him, which seems implausible because the video reveals he was docile and hardly able to climb out of the ambulance on his own at the time the police arrived, one of the officers could have gotten into the ambulance with the EMTs and transported him to the hospital,” Schwarz added.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages and “loss-of-life or hedonic damages” and demands a jury trial, the complaint shows.
“The family hopes this lawsuit will shed light on what caused the deliberate indifference to Mr. Coleman’s wellbeing,” Schwarz said.
This story was originally published July 1, 2024 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Patient who needed oxygen was removed from ambulance, collapsed and died, suit says."
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