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October 12, 2007

AG: Dispatchers can't be charged in woman's death

PROVIDENCE – The Attorney General’s Office ruled today that the Pawtucket Fire Department dispatchers who delayed sending an ambulance to the home of a woman who was bleeding heavily can’t charged with a crime because it isn’t possible to establish that the nearly 15-minute delay caused her death.

The bleeding was so “voluminous” and Maria G. Carvalho was such poor health that she probably would not have survived even if the rescue truck had been sent to her house when it was first requested, Assistant Attorney General Stacey Pires Veroni said, quoting Dr. Peter A. Gillespie, an assistant state medical examiner.

“Due to the inability to establish that the delay in the dispatch of the rescue was the proximate cause of the death of Mrs. Carvalho, I will not present this matter to the grand jury,” Veroni said.

The ruling, which Veroni laid out in a letter to Pawtucket Police Chief George L. Kelley III, came three weeks and a day after Mrs. Carvalho, a 53-year-old kidney patient, bled to death from a shunt, or bypass, inserted in her blood vessels to facilitate dialysis.

The ruling was immediately disputed by Stephen M. Rappoport, a lawyer hired by the Carvalho family to file a wrongful death claim in the case.

In an interview today, Rappoport said that the medical experts he consulted have been unanimous that the delay dispatching a rescue truck to her home the morning of Sept. 20 resulted in her death

“I would respectfully say that we are in total disagreement with Dr. Gillespie,” Rappoport said.

-- Journal staff writer John Castellucci

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 5:59 PM | Permalink

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