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Two New Bedford paramedics are facing disciplinary action by the city and the state for not performing CPR on an unresponsive infant at a home in December, authorities said. The child was later pronounced dead.
Mayor Scott W. Lang said yesterday that he will hold a disciplinary hearing tomorrow for the two city employees and will also inquire into the operations of the city's Emergency Medical Services agency.
"By and large, I think it provides a very high quality of service," Lang said of the ambulance service. "What we have here is a situation where we have an incident that makes everyone take a look and to make sure that we are following through on appropriate mandates."
The move by Lang is being made after an April conclusion by the state Department of Public Health that two paramedics violated protocols when they did not perform CPR on the infant. The state suspended them for 30 days. WBZ-TV reported that the infant was a 1-month-old boy.
The health department identified the paramedics as Rosemary Nunes and Ivan Brody. They could not be reached for comment yesterday.
In a five-page report, the health department said public safety officials responded to an unidentified New Bedford home around 3:14 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2008, for "a baby not breathing."
A family member began CPR, and a New Bedford police officer had taken over the task before paramedics arrived. The infant was handed over to Nunes and Brody, and neither continued the CPR, the health department said.
Brody told city officials and the health department that he thought the child was deceased and transported the infant to the hospital so the parents would not have the baby in their home while the death was investigated.
But the health department said neither paramedic performed the required medical analysis on the child.
The paramedics needed to check for rigor mortis, body temperature, lung sounds, and reaction to light, the report stated.
"There is no evidence that this patient met the criteria for [paramedics] to withhold or cease CPR efforts," the health department concluded. "There was . . . no trauma inconsistent with survival and no body condition clearly indicating death."
Brody was also cited for filing an inaccurate report.
The health department report does not conclude whether CPR would have saved the child. But in a phone interview yesterday, Lang said it was his understanding that "no one has indicated to me that the outcome would have changed in any way." The parents are not identified in the report.
