Updated: March 14, 2000 - 6 PM
Philly Faces 911 Wrongful Death Suit
Dispatcher sent emergency call to private ambulance service JULIE KNIPE BROWN
Reprinted with Permission, Philadelphia Daily News
Ralph Beswick Jr. believes his father might still be alive if a city 911 dispatcher hadn't sent the wrong ambulance.
Yesterday Beswick filed a wrongful-death/civil-rights lawsuit against the city, the dispatcher and the private ambulance company she worked for, claiming his father died because he failed to get emergency treatment in a timely manner.
The city dispatcher, Julie Rodriguez, 32, has admitted forwarding a 911 call from Beswick's father's home to CareState Ambulance Inc., of Langhorne, the company she worked for part-time as an emergency medical technician.
Fire Department regulations prohibit city dispatchers from diverting 911 calls to private ambulance companies, but Beswick's suit contends the city knew the practice was happening and failed to do anything to stop it.
"This was not the first time that Ms. Rodriguez forwarded a 911 call to a private ambulance company, and the city of Philadelphia was aware of this practice yet. . .knowingly permitted Ms. Rodriguez to continue working as a dispatcher," the suit says.
The suit also faults the Fire Department for allowing 911 dispatchers to work for private ambulance companies.
"Not since the Eddie Polec tragedy have I heard a set of facts as outrageous as these when it comes to the conduct of a 911 operator," said Beswick's attorney, Michael A. Smerconish, referring to the November 1994 case of Eddie Polec, the 16-year-old who was beaten to death in Fox Chase.
In that case, neighbors and witnesses who frantically called 911 to help the boy were confronted by rude dispatchers who delayed summoning police.
The Beswick 911 call is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Philadelphia district attorney's office.
Beswick's father, Ralph Sr., collapsed on the kitchen floor in their Kensington home on Feb. 11, and Rodriguez answered a 911 call from his common-law wife, dispatching a private ambulance. The ambulance failed to arrive, prompting a second frantic call from Beswick's companion, Rose Wiegand, 63.
This time, another dispatcher sent a city ambulance, and Rodriguez, who overheard the second call, called the private company a second time.
"Don't bother to go, he's dead," Rodriguez told them, according to two co-workers who heard her. They added that during the second call, Rodriguez laughed.
Rodriguez, who has since resigned, told the Daily News she could not remember whether she had laughed.
Beswick, 65, was taken to Northeastern Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The apparent cause of death was a heart attack.
Rodriguez said she forwarded the calls because CareStat was helping her become a paramedic. Her attorney, Perry deMarco, said she had no financial incentive to forward calls to CareStat.
Investigators from the DA's office are reviewing the Fire Department dispatch tapes of calls taken by Rodriguez over the last year. It's unclear whether the investigation involves any other dispatchers or private ambulance companies.
The city has refused to release a copy of the 911 tape from Feb. 11, and both Mayor Street and Fire Commissioner Harold Hairston have declined to discuss the scandal.
CareStat officials have not returned phone calls to the Daily News
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