Police Did Not Help Girl With Asthma Who Subsequently Died

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Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 01 Sep 2010 - 5:00 PDT

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Carmen Delgado was driving her asthma-suffering daughter Briana to hospital and crashed her car into another vehicle; police officer Alfonso Mendez told the mother he did not know CPR and could not help - leaving the girl to die. The New York Police Department, whose officers are ALL trained in CPR, has suspended Mendez without pay. The girl's funeral is scheduled for today.

The police department says Mendez, who has been working as a cop for five years, was suspended on the departmental charge of failure to take appropriate action in connection with the death of an 11-year old girl who was having an asthma attack. The girl's mother alerted the officer that she was suffering an asthma attack.

Briana, the daughter, had been playing in Carrol Gardens Park, Brooklyn, when she fell ill. According to the Wall Street Journal, the mother flagged down the police office begging him for help. When Mendez told her he could not help and did not know CPR, Carmen Delgado put Briana into her car and drove her towards Long Island College Hospital.

Mendez had been trained in CPR. According to media reports in New York, he did not feel confident enough to put his training into action. He followed the mother's car, towards the hospital. He drove off when the mother reached the hospital, not reporting the incident as he should have done. The girl was pronounced dead by hospital staff.

The mother later told the media what happened. NYPD internal affairs officers showed the mother photographs of police officers to see if she could identify any of them, which she initially could not. Internal Affairs officers expanded the search until Mendez, who was assigned to the 84th precinct in downtown Brooklyn, was identified.

What is CPR?

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a life-saving procedure. If an individual collapses from an asthma attack it is due to lack of oxygen, because the small airways in the lungs have narrowed and not enough air is getting into the air sacs. Mouth-to-mouth may help while the patient is rushed to an emergency department so that a tube may be placed in the main airway (endotracheal intubation).

Sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC.

Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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