An investigation has been launched into the death of a Rochester, New York, man who reportedly collapsed to the sidewalk after being thrown from an ambulance by first responders in late November.
“We tried to help, (…) but the way you came in here and the way you jumped on us is not the way to ask someone for help,” he said. The paramedic can be heard throwing at the man sitting in the emergency vehicle, according to body camera footage from Rochester police, shared by NBC News10.
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans said he was “stunned” Thursday at a press conference at the treatment allegedly meted out to a man, whose identity has not been revealed, who had just asked for help because that he was struggling to breathe, according to what the New York Post.
“We need to get to the bottom of this. We need to understand how and why this happened. The residents of the city are people and they deserve to be treated humanely and with the same attention as anyone else,” he insisted according to the American media.
On the body camera images, which begin with the arrival of the police on the scene on November 30, we can hear the paramedic accusing the patient of having thrown himself at the healthcare team, to the point of having to call the police officers to remove him from the vehicle.
“I was panicking. You would panic too if you couldn’t breathe,” he can be heard responding, before eventually getting out of the ambulance, to wait on the sidewalk for a second ambulance.
Except that in the following minutes, we can see him collapse on his side and remain motionless on the ground for more than two minutes, before one of the nearby police officers finally came to check on his condition.
Transported to a hospital center, the man died after two weeks, confirmed the mayor, according to the New York Postbut the cause of his death has not been revealed.
The ambulance service, American Medical Response, reportedly agreed to the mayor’s request to open an internal investigation into the incident.
“We have also requested an investigation by the New York State Department of Health Office into the emergency medical aid and trauma systems,” he told 13 ABC, according to the US media outlet .
