EMS workers’ failure to help dying man leads to $425K settlement

Bill Cresenzo//April 12, 2021//

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Marion County has reached a $425,000 settlement with the family of a man who died of a heart attack after the EMS workers who responded to his 911 call turned around and left when no one answered their knocks on the door, the family’s attorneys report.

Taylor Powell and Ellis Lesemann of Lesemann & Associates and Brad Richardson of Conway report that their client’s brother, Daniel Bethea, had called 911 to say he needed help. Two Marion County EMS workers arrived at Bethea’s home six minutes after they were dispatched. They knocked on the front door, back door, and windows, but didn’t get any response. They cleared the scene and left, but didn’t follow up or request fire officials to make a forced entry.

The next day, the director of Marion County EMS reviewed the logs from the workers’ shifts and discovered discrepancies and asked fire and rescue workers to conduct a wellness check on Bethea. They found him dead, lying on his back at the edge of his bed with his feet on the floor.

Powell said that a similar incident had happened in 2014, and it prompted the county’s EMS to install procedures so it wouldn’t happen again.

“Marion County either failed to properly train its EMS employees regarding these policies, or the policies were willfully ignored, resulting in the death of Mr. Bethea,” Powell said.

An autopsy showed that Bethea had a 30-40 percent narrowing of the left anterior descending coronary artery, a 30 percent narrowing of the left circumflex, and a 50 percent narrowing of the right coronary artery. As a result, it was disputed whether Bethea’s death was instant or whether he could have been saved had the EMS workers followed procedure.

Jay Lee of Aiken Bridges in Florence represented Marion County. He could not be reached for comment.

SETTLEMENT REPORT — NEGLIGENCE