Four emergency workers have been suspended after a woman they said was dead from a suspected overdose was actually alive.
Springfield Township Fire Chief Barry Cousino, Assistant Fire Chief David Moore and two paramedics, Aiden Yoon and Bill Fordyce, have been placed on administrative leave.
The decision came after multiple first responders from Springfield Township and Toledo wrongly pronounced a woman dead at an Ohio home, saying “OK, good enough for me” as they called the scene.
They then called a coroner, who arrived on the scene and found the woman breathing.
Arielle Diaz, 31, was found “unresponsive on the couch” with a “blue/gray” complexion by paramedics on January 2 when they determined she was dead.
Four emergency workers have been suspended after a woman they said was dead from a suspected overdose was actually alive
Springfield Township Fire Chief Barry Cousino (left) and Assistant Fire Chief David Moore (right) were placed on administrative leave
Two paramedics, Aiden Yoon (left) and Bill Fordyce (right), have also been placed on administrative leave
The emergency response came after a neighbor called 911 when he heard a dog barking repeatedly and went to check the property, only to find the woman unconscious.
Emergency services were already on site, but called for the help of the dog warden to remove the animal.
A “large, aggressive pit bull dog” was reportedly next to the woman “unwilling to move,” complicating the first responder’s efforts to tend to her, they claimed.
While police worked to get the dog out of bed using food and other tactics, no one checked on the woman.
From a distance, first responders noticed that Diaz’s fingers and the area around her mouth were blue.
After the dog warden finally forced the dog out of the property, EMS returned to the house and made a decision on the woman just two minutes after the dog’s departure, citing ‘code 18’ – police jargon for finding a deceased.
After they gathered outside to discuss Diaz’s condition, the paramedic on the phone stated that she was “dependent on pallor.”
The doctor replied, “Do you see any pallor,” to which they replied, “It is not accuracy noted, but dependent pallor.”
The coroner arrived at 9:45 a.m., more than an hour after Diaz was declared dead. At 9:57 a.m., the coroner noticed that she was breathing, her abdomen felt warm, and her legs and feet were flexible.
Diaz was given a mask to help her breathe and given three doses of Narcan – after which she “brightened up.”
The decision came after several first responders from Springfield Township and Toledo wrongly pronounced a woman dead at an Ohio home, saying “OK, good enough for me” when they called the scene.
Arielle Diaz, 31, was found on January 2 by paramedics ‘lying on the couch’ with a ‘blue/grey’ skin color when they decided she was dead
Springfield Township promises an internal investigation into the response, saying ‘this should not have happened’
Springfield Township promised an internal investigation into the response, saying, “This should not have happened.”
‘The situation is tragic. It should not have happened, and we are deeply sorry that it did,” said City Manager Michael Hampton WOOL. “Our internal investigation will certainly get to the bottom of what happened, and we will provide as much transparency to the public as we legally can.”
Barry Cousino and David Moore were not on scene when the incident occurred. They will be evaluated on how they handled the situation in the following days and on their obligation to report the incident to municipal staff.
The city’s board of directors heard about the incident for the first time on Monday.