Paramedics Surprised at Teen Proclaimed Dead but Still Moving

teen
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

teen

Outside of a party, 17-year-old Erin Carey was shot multiple times in the head, labeled dead, and then laid under a sheet on the ground. It was only when onlookers noticed movement, as of the exhalation of breath, did paramedics realize that the teen needed treatment as he was still alive.

On Monday, June 18, 2018, a party took place in a house in the University Village neighborhood, in the 1200 block of South Loomis. Around 4:50 a.m. onlookers reported gunshots shortly after two cars were spotted circling the area.

Among the six people who were shot, young Carey was the only one unattended in a health check by the paramedics. After nearby onlookers saw the teen breathing under the sheet, he was pulled into the ambulance and his condition evaluated. But when questioned by newscasters, officers did not have the exact accounts of what the paramedics did when first arriving at the scene. The only thing certain, as declared by Chicago Police Superintendent Anthony Riccio, was that paramedics looked at Carey and believed him to be deceased, covered him with a sheet, then moved onto others in the incident.

After he died in the early morning on Tuesday despite being on life support, his family publicly questioned why professionals had simply felt their sons body on the ground, dead or not.

Investigators could not determine who exactly placed the sheet since no one has any account of actually proclaiming young Carey dead.  Spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department, Larry Langford, declared that what happened on the scene was unacceptable compared to what should have happened.

Langford specified the amount of ambulance response time should have been much less than 50 minutes with such an extensive head injury that Carey suffered. Such an event would have been labeled as a “load and go,” taking no less than 10 minutes for the victim to be off in an ambulance.

Langford stated that in order to find what and who went wrong, the department would need to have intensive, time-consuming interviews with those at the scene.

Written by Brielle B. Buford

Sources

Chicago Tribune: Paramedics under investigation after not immediately tending to teen with gunshot wound to head

CNN: His boy was shot, covered in a sheet but was still breathing. A Chicago father wants answers

Daily Herald: Chicago teen wrongly presumed dead after shooting ultimately dies

Top and Featured Image Courtesy of John W. Iwanski’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License

Share:

Send Us A Message