HOUSTON, Texas – Renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump and co-counsel James P. Roberts, Scott H. Palmer, and Breanta Boss of Scott H. Palmer, P.C., of Dallas, Texas, have filed a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of a 14-year-old boy with cerebral palsy after paramedics wrongly declared him dead and denied him emergency medical treatment.
On January 26, 2021, the teen’s grandmother, Stacy Williams, called 911 seeking medical attention for the youth after he hadn’t urinated all day and had discolored lips and fingertips. The teen, who is a survivor of shaken baby syndrome, had a history of low heart rate and low body temperature.
The personal injury lawsuit says that upon arriving on the scene, paramedics Andrew Williams and Joe Spradlin checked the teen’s pulse and declared him “gone,” saying “it will take an act of God” to resuscitate him. Despite pleas from the grandmother to provide medical care, the paramedics failed to administer CPR, chest compressions, or other emergency care. The teen was subsequently hospitalized for more than a month, emerging with even greater medical needs than before.
“This case is outrageous and heartbreaking. Paramedics are first responders with a duty to try to preserve life, and instead, these men refused to do their fundamental job, denying life-saving medical care,” Crump said. “Their heartless conduct leaves a devoted grandmother with an even heavier burden of care.”
Only after the youth vomited and his grandmother tried to pick him up to transport him to the hospital did Andrew Williams and Joe Spradlin ask if she wanted them to perform CPR, according to the suit. By this time, a second paramedic unit arrived, administered CPR, and transported him to the hospital, where he was resuscitated.
The suit alleges that the original paramedic team failed to recognize that the youth was in fact alive and failed to provide emergency care despite clear signs of life. These paramedics delayed his transport to the hospital by 24 minutes, causing brain damage due to the extended period without oxygen, the lawsuit says.
The teen is not as responsive as he was before the incident and rocks back and forth. He no longer eats regularly and needs to be fed through a tube; prior to the incident, he ate and took medicine by mouth and only needed a tube for liquids.
The 48-page personal injury lawsuit cites violations of the teen’s constitutional due process rights and says, “As a result of Defendants Andrew Williams and Joe Spradlin’s deliberate decision to not administer life-saving measures such as CPR and chest compressions (the teen) suffered brain damage due to the extended period of lack of oxygen.”
As a result of their inaction, Andrew Williams and Joe Spradlin were suspended for seven days by the Houston Fire Department. The personal injury lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston division.
For more information, click to read the plaintiff’s original complaint.
And the link is:
plaintiff’s original complaint
###
About Ben Crump Law
Nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump and his national network of specialized attorneys have spearheaded a legal movement to better protect the rights of marginalized citizens. He has led landscape-changing civil rights cases and represented clients in a wide range of areas including civil rights, personal injury, labor and employment, class actions, and more. Ben Crump Law is dedicated to holding the powerful accountable. For more, visit BenCrump.com or call (800) 935-8111
About Scott H. Palmer, P.C.
The civil rights attorneys at Scott H. Palmer, P.C. have dedicated their careers to fighting injustice with a focus in representing clients who have had their Constitutional rights violated by law enforcement officials by way of excessive force, deliberate indifference to medical care, and wrongful arrests. Based in Dallas, Texas, our attorneys represent clients all over Texas and throughout the nation. For more information, visit www.scottpalmerlaw.com or call (214) 987-4100.
