Ore. man dies after hospital tells police call 911

[February 12, 2011]  PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Coughing and unable to sleep, Birgilio Marin-Fuentes drove himself to the hospital after midnight earlier this week, but he crashed his car just shy of his goal.

By the time somebody noticed the accident in the Portland Adventist Medical Center parking garage and told police, about 20 minutes had gone by.

The 61-year-old Cuban immigrant eventually died, leaving his family in grief, police upset, and a congressman requesting an investigation. All are asking why a police officer was told to call 911 for a heart attack victim just outside the hospital door.

Marin-Fuentes had struck a pillar and wall early Thursday morning inside the first level of the garage under an "emergency parking only" sign about 125 feet from the emergency room entrance.

Police say officers Angela Luty and Robert Quick found him unconscious and unresponsive and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A third officer, Andrew Hearst, went to the ER intake desk and told them what was happening.

Police say that's when he was told to call the emergency line.

"The officers recognized this man needed medical attention immediately, and two officers began CPR immediately, and a third officer went to ask for assistance, and they were told they had to wait until an ambulance arrived," said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman.

Judy Leach, a hospital spokeswoman, said emergency room staff was told it was a car crash and they were following the proper protocol by instructing police to summon an ambulance crew.

"With an automobile accident you don't know if the patient needs to be extricated or transported," Leach said Friday. "There are protocols in place to ensure the right thing is done for the right patient at the right time."

She said hospital security officers equipped with a mobile defibrillator were dispatched, and a paramedic went outside to check on the situation.

But Simpson said officers did not receive any medical assistance and were left to fend for themselves until the ambulance arrived and the crew wheeled Marin-Fuentes the short distance to the emergency room aboard a gurney.

"It's a traumatic experience to give CPR and have a person not survive, especially to be that close to a hospital with trained medical personnel right there who could have assisted," Simpson said.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer said Friday he has asked the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to conduct an independent investigation to make sure the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act approved in 1986 was followed.

The act requires all Medicare participating hospitals with emergency departments to treat any critically ill patients on their premises, including parking lots, Blumenauer said.

Blumenauer said he was "deeply concerned" about the way the incident was handled and has been in contact with both national and state hospital associations "to make sure everybody gets their signals straight."

Mark McDougal, a Portland attorney representing the family of Marin-Fuentes, said the family was pleased that Blumenauer has asked for a federal investigation.

"It is particularly disturbing that the hospital has given an account which is directly contradicted by the officers at the scene," McDougal said.

Efforts by The Associated Press to reach the victim's wife, Claudia Luis Garcia, on Friday were unsuccessful.

But she told The Oregonian she believes if she had insisted on driving with her husband to the hospital, he might still be alive.

"They left him to die," Luis Garcia said.

[Associated Press; By WILLIAM MCCALL]

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