Two emergency medical personnel in Illinois have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 35-year-old patient in their care after being inappropriately restrained in an ambulance.
Peggy Finley, 44, and Peter Cadigan, 50, employed with LifeStar EMS, were charged with the death of 35-year-old Earl L. Moore Jr. on December 18, according to Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright.
Wright said that when police were sent to Moore’s home, they discovered him hallucinating and promptly dialed EMS for medical care.
Moore had to be driven in an ambulance by Finley and Cadigan. The two are accused of putting Moore face-down on a paramedic stretcher and improperly securing him with a medical strap across Moore’s lower torso and back.
Earl Moore Jr. “become the victim of actions which caused his death at the hands of individuals dispatched by police to provide emergency medical treatment after the arrival of EMS,” Wright said.
According to an autopsy, Moore suffered from “compressional and positional asphyxia owing to prone face-down entrapment on a paramedic transportation cot stretcher with tightened straps across the back.”
Wright says that based on their training and experience, the two should have known that putting a patient in such a position “would cause a high chance of serious bodily damage or death.”
