CAD Decision, No Key Lead to Woman’s Death

A decision by a Lowell (Mass.) 911 dispatcher to cancel the fire department response to an EMS incident created a delay in gaining entry to the apartment at an independent-living apartment, where an elderly woman was found unresponsive by a fire crew, 66 minutes after she pressed her medical alert device. Now after an extensive investigation, officials say they’ve fired dispatcher Jason Lumenello and re-trained other personnel to prevent a similar incident from occurring. Lumenello had been a part-time dispatcher since 1999, and went full-time in February 2009. According to an investigation, Lumenello fielded a call from the alarm company, and created an EMS incident in CAD. However, he immediately cancelled the fire department portion of the response, and sent only an ambulance crew. When the medics arrived, they talked to the woman through the door, but couldn’t gain entry to the apartment. They requested the fire department, but the arriving fire crew discovered they didn’t have a key to the complex’s lock box. They located a nursing supervisor who had a key, and when they entered the woman was unresponsive. She was transported to a hospital where she was declared dead. Download (pdf, 118 Mb) the investigative report here, and read more about the incident here.