Sommers Schwartz attorney Andy Dragovic negotiated a $975,000 settlement to resolve a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of a 30-year-old man against the City of Detroit.

On Friday, January 4th, 2019, a two-person ambulance crew responded to a 911 emergency call. They found Patrick Clemons-Hodges on the floor at the home where he lived with his mother. He was complaining of shortness of breath and chest pain. Despite the cardiac emergency, the paramedics did not take any vital signs, provide him with oxygen, or follow cardiac/chest pain protocols.

They instead asked Mr. Clemons-Hodges to make his way to the ambulance on his own, telling him he was “too big to lift” and offering him no assistance. Once he got himself onto the gurney, he became non-responsive. His heart had stopped. Instead of performing lifesaving CPR, the paramedics merely loaded him into the ambulance and drove away. Upon arrival at the hospital, Mr. Clemons-Hodges was pronounced dead. He had suffered a cardiac arrest.

While the defendants claimed that they did perform CPR on Mr. Clemons-Hodges in the back of the ambulance, expert analysis of the recorded cardiac monitor data showed CPR was never performed.

The lawsuit, brought by Mr. Clemons-Hodges’ surviving family, claimed that the city’s emergency response team’s failure to perform basic lifesaving measures, including CPR, constituted gross negligence and resulted in the young man’s untimely death.

The City of Detroit argued they had governmental immunity from liability for the acts of their employees, however, they were unable to avoid liability as the trial court, Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court agreed with Plaintiff’s arguments that the defendants were liable for their employees under the “medical care exception” to governmental immunity (GTLA) and under the gross negligence exception of the Emergency Medical Services Act.