Houston Chronicle

October 14, 2000

 

City sued over EMT's refusal to take man to hospital

By Bill Murphy

 

On the same day Lester Tyra was fired as Houston's fire chief, a lawsuit stemming from an incident that may have contributed to his dismissal was filed against the city.

 

Relatives of Jose Ruiz, who died about 10 hours after Fire Department ambulance workers refused to take him to the hospital, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city Thursday.

 

John Tavormina, the Ruiz family lawyer, said the timing of the events was coincidental. He said he hadn't pressed for Tyra's removal.

 

Tyra became the target of criticism over the summer due in part to the Ruiz incident and the death of 12-year-old Daniel Lopez, who died of an aortic aneurysm after paramedics failed to thoroughly examine him June 17.

 

Ruiz died June 11, after ambulance workers ignored his and his relatives' pleas to take him to the hospital, according to the wrongful death lawsuit.

 

One of the emergency medial technicians told Jose Ruiz to take antacid mediation because he had been eating "chile peppers," according to a Fire Department internal affairs report.

 

The EMT also discouraged Ruiz, 35, from taking an ambulance by telling him it would cost him $500 or $600, the report said. And at 6:20 p.m. June 10, they declined transport him. He died of hyperglycemia-excessive blood sugar- the next day, according to a Harris County Medical Examiner's autopsy report.

 

"I’m just guessing he was an undiagnosed diabetic," said John Tavormina, the Ruiz family lawyer. "That's just so eminently treatable, it's unbelievable."

 

Mayor Lee Brown said Tyra was demoted because Brown wanted a new management style better suited to solve internal problems and provide better service.

 

In July, Tyra fired the two EMTs, Donna Golden and Donald Mauro, who handled the Ruiz call. Golden and Mauro will remain on indefinite suspension, without pay, until arbitrator hears their appeals this fall, said Steve Williams, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 341.

 

"We believe we will be successful in showing these indefinite suspensions were not warranted," Williams said, "and they will get their jobs back."

 

Williams declined to comment on the incident until after the hearings.

 

Connie Acosta, a lawyer in the city attorney's office, said the city wouldn't comment on the lawsuit because it hasn't received it.

 

In a sworn statement given to an internal affairs investigator, Golden denied that she had refused to take Ruiz to the hospital, that she had told him to take antacid medicine and that she had discussed the ambulance ride's cost with him.

 

The only complaint I received was that he had air in his stomach," Golden said. A "translator reassured me that the patient would go to the hospital by private automobile... I didn't speak to anyone about a charge for ambulance service."

 

In a sworn statement, Mauro said, "We were informed ... that the patient had been drinking beer and eating chile peppers."

 

Two of Ruiz's brothers and a friend, in sworn statements, contradicted key points of the EMTs’ account of their visit.

 

Internal affairs investigator James Snowden was assigned to find out what happened at Ruiz's apartment in 8600 block of Broadway. Snowden, concluded Ruiz's relatives had given the correct account.

 

Ruiz told Golden that he had been throwing up for two or three day and putting nothing more than juice and water into his stomach during that time, Snowden found. Ruiz, according to Snowden, never mentioned drinking beer and eating chile peppers.

 

After finding that his blood pressure was normal, "Golden informed the patient that he should take Maalox and Tums and go see a personal physician in the morning," Snowden wrote.

 

Golden to Ruiz that Golden's husband had an ulcer and had experienced similar pains as Ruiz, but she said they went away when he "stopped eating spicy foods and drinking alcohol," according to Snowden.

 

Snowden concluded Golden told Ruiz it would cost him $500 to $600 to take an ambulance to the hospital.

 

"Victor Ruiz, the patient's brother, told Golden and Mauro that he would pay the fee in cash," Snowden said.

 

Ruiz spoke English, and Golden spoke to him without the aid of a translator, Snowden found.

 

Snowden found Golden and Mauro violated the department's "standing orders" requiring EMTs to get a supervisor and base station physician to approve a decision not to take a patient to the hospital.

 

Golden was among the EMTs who responded to the Ruiz home June 11 after family members discovered Ruiz wasn't breathing, Snowden said.

 

Tavormina also represents Daniel Lopez's family.

"Poorer people don't get the treatment and service that all of us are entitled to, and that's not right," Tavormina said.