City of NY Sued Death During Blizzard
Posted on Jan 23, 2011 11:10am PST
The New York Daily News has reported that the family of a 75 year-old woman that died from heart failure, while waiting for paramedics during a blizzard, is suing the city for $20 million in her wrongful death.
The elderly Queens woman, Yvonne Freeman, waited three hours for an ambulance to respond to her daughter's repeated 911 telephone calls. The city had been shut down due to a blizzard that left streets, piled with snow, unplowed.
Laura Freeman, 41, contends that her mother would have survived her heart attack if the first responders could have gained access to her home in Corona much sooner. Freeman said, "She never had a chance. I felt so helpless. I can't believe they wouldn't plow the streets. The city can't let this happen again. She was my life."
Sanford Rubenstein, Freeman's lawyer, will be notifying the city of it's first wrongful death lawsuit that is blizzard related.
Besides the first responders, also named in the suit for negligence are the city's sanitation and transportation departments. The city itself is being sued as it failed to declare a snow emergency.
The lawsuit contends that both the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Fire Department New York (FDNY) neglected to "maintain and update" the 911 system while streets were shut down.
Freeman stated that it took almost 45 minutes to reach an emergency operator via 911.
Rubenstein said, "We allege negligence on behalf of multiple city agencies caused this wrongful death."
The incident began at 8 a.m. on December 27 when Yvonne Freeman complained to her daughter that she had trouble breathing. Several phone calls to 911 proved fruitless; Laura Freeman either got a recorded message or a buzzing sound on the other end.
Freeman said, "My mother was sitting on the couch and she was starting to look gray. I kept rubbing her back and rubbing her chest. She said, 'If I can't talk to you again, goodbye Laura.'"
Freeman then ran outside of their home to try and get help from a passerby, "I was screaming, 'Please call 911!' A man was walking by and he tried to call 911 on his cell phone and he couldn't get through."
It was a few minutes after 11 p.m. that paramedics walked two blocks through the snow to get to the residence. At that time Yvonne Freeman had already succumbed.
The paramedics told Freeman, "We're so sorry we've never seen anything like this."
Yvonne Freeman's death has been listed as heart disease by the city medical examiner.
Officials from the City Law Department have declined to make a comment. Kate Ahlers, the spokeswoman, said, "The case involves a very tragic situation and we'll await the legal papers."
The City Department of Investigation, along with federal prosecutors, are investigating both the deaths, and several other cases of issues stemming from the blizzard. There is a possibility that some of the trouble wasn't averted due to an illegal work slowdown by Sanitation workers.
You may be due monetary compensation in the loss of a loved one due to their wrongful death. Click here to contact a personal injury attorney from our directory for help.