4 EMS workers barred from duty after chokehold death
Four EMS workers have been placed on modified duty as part of an investigation into the death of Eric Garner.
Four emergency-service workers who responded to the scene where diabetic dad
Eric Garner lay unconscious after an NYPD cop put him in a chokehold have been barred from going on any more ambulance calls pending a probe, officials said.
“The FDNY has restricted these employees … until the investigation and review of their response and operational procedures takes place,” said Fire Department spokesman Jim Long on Sunday.
The two medics and two EMTs — who are part of Richmond University Medical Center on Staten Island — were placed on modified duty as part of the investigation, officials said. The move doesn’t indicate wrongdoing, they added.
FDNY medics or hospital medics are dispatched to scenes depending on availability and proximity, sources said.
The medics who were called to where Garner passed out
broke a slew of procedures when they arrived, EMS sources told The Post.
A 7-minute video that captured the last few minutes of the life of Garner, 43, as he laid on a Tompkinsville sidewalk also caught the workers’ procedural lapses, sources said.
EMS sources told The Post that a medic came to Garner’s side without any equipment such as an oxygen bag or defibrillator.
“You can hear her say, ‘Oh, he can’t walk to the bus?” said the source. “It was pretty obvious this patient was in distress. His body was limp and lifeless.”
Garner should immediately have been placed on a stretcher and had his airway, breathing and circulation checked out by an EMT, sources added.
But the EMT never used a stethoscope, which medics are required to carry, to check Garner’s lungs for air movement, and didn’t connect Garner to an oxygen mask.
About four minutes into the video, the medic is seen checking for a wrist pulse and then a neck pulse — but neither she nor anyone else is seen administering any kind of aid.
“Maybe the EMT felt a pulse, but it was obvious this male was in serious distress and needed to be assisted with his breathing,” said the source. “Three minutes is a long time for a body to be lacking oxygen when an EMS crew is on scene.”
Garner died of cardiac arrest en route to the hospital minutes later.