Stonington — The head of the Stonington Ambulance Corps has agreed to be placed on a year's probation and undergo retraining for deciding last May that lightning victim Kevin Crandall was dead when he was actually alive.
The stipulations were part of a seven-page consent order between the state Department of Public Health, which investigated the May 31 incident, and Victor Lima, an emergency medical technician and president of the volunteer ambulance association.
The health department released the consent order to The Day, which had filed a freedom-of-information request last year for all reports related to the incident.
In the order, the health department alleged that Lima “failed to conduct a proper patient assessment” and, in doing so, “failed to recognize the patient was actually alive.”
The order said Lima did not dispute the facts of the incident.
Crandall, a mason and leader of a popular local blues band, was building a stone wall in the backyard of a waterfront home in Stonington Borough when he was struck in the head by lightning.
Witnesses said emergency medical technicians from the ambulance association indicated Crandall was dead and covered him with a blanket. But 10 minutes later, a police officer noticed Crandall was breathing. Crandall, who lives in North Stonington, was rushed to The Westerly Hospital and then transferred to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, where he was initially placed on life support.
Crandall recovered and was released from the hospital a few weeks later.
The state Office of Emergency Medical Services investigated whether the ambulance association properly treated Crandall.
Crandall and his attorney, Stephen Reck, have filed an intention to sue Lima, three other ambulance association members and the town, which partially funds the independent organization. They said the ambulance association's actions contributed to the neurological injuries and anoxic brain damage that Crandall sustained.
Neither Reck nor Lima could be reached for comment Monday.
The consent order said that Lima must hire an independent contractor to perform random quarterly reviews of the records of Lima's patients. Lima also must provide local hospitals with a copy of the order.
Under the order, Lima must meet with a supervisor who will conduct quarterly reviews during the probationary period. It is unclear who will conduct the reviews since Lima is the head of the ambulance association. Health department officials were unavailable for comment Monday.
Within the first six months of probation, Lima must successfully complete a course in patient assessment and protocol on withholding resuscitation. He is also barred from assessing the status of any patients until he completes the retraining. If he violates any terms of the agreement he must stop practicing as an EMT, and the state may suspend his EMT certificate.
The state has cleared one emergency medical technician and a medical response technician of any wrongdoing in the incident but still is investigating the actions of ambulance association Vice President Iona Lyons, an EMT who, according to 911 tapes, canceled a paramedic unit rushing to the scene.
A state report on the incident cites a Stonington police report indicating that when Sgt. Keith Beebe arrived on the scene, Lima told him Crandall was dead and was not the victim of a lightning strike because there were no wounds or burns. Lima added that when he and Lyons placed an automatic external defibrillator on Crandall, the machine advised them not to shock him.
Beebe said that after Lima showed him the blue pooling of blood on Crandall's back, Lima told him that Crandall might have suffered a heart attack and had been dead for a while.
Witnesses told police they saw lightning hit Crandall, and Beebe told Lima it was clear Crandall had been alive five minutes before the ambulance workers arrived. Beebe suggested that the ambulance workers might want to reassess their decision not to attempt to resuscitate Crandall. Beebe then noticed that Crandall was gasping for air.
In an interview with investigators, Lima said that based on his physical assessment of Crandall and the fact the defibrillator did not indicate a shock, he was convinced that Crandall had been dead for a long period. He said both he and Lyons agreed to cancel the paramedics.
Their decision to stop trying to resuscitate Crandall violated state protocols that call for EMTs to start and continue cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics, who have a higher level of training, get to the scene and take over for them or a doctor tells them to cease resuscitation efforts.
j.wojtas@theday.com
© The Day Publishing Co., 2006
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