Connecticut Probes Mistaken Death Pronouncement

May 23--NEW HAVEN -- The Fire Department launched an investigation Tuesday into an incident in which the victim of an apparent suicide attempt was pronounced dead by a fire officer, but then was discovered to be alive hours later.

Neither police nor the Fire Department released the identity of the man, who was taken to the hospital after a worker from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, who had come to retrieve the body, realized the man wasn't dead.

Because his name was not released, his condition Tuesday was not known.

Fire Chief Michael Grant confirmed an investigation was under way to determine what occurred during the call in the 200 block of Greene Street, but declined to release any more information.

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on the circumstances," Grant said. " That's what I'm investigating."

This much is known: The police and fire departments were dispatched to the address in Wooster Square about 6 a.m. on a water emergency after the landlord called 911, concerned about running water inside an apartment, police said.

Firefighters on an aerial truck managed to gain entry and found the man in a cold bath. Police later said they believed it was an attempt at suicide. They called for a fire ambulance and fire engine for medical assistance. Before the units arrived, the ranking fire officer at the scene, an emergency medical technician, pronounced the man dead and canceled the engine company, according to people familiar with the preliminary investigation.

The fire ambulance continued to the location, but it wasn't immediately clear if medics on the unit were able to examine the body because the apartment was considered a possible crime scene.

The Police Department's Bureau of Identification, the crime scene unit, was summoned to take pictures and collect evidence and detectives responded. It wasn't until about four hours later, after the person from the medical examiner's office arrived, that the worker observed the man gasp, according to several individuals with knowledge of the case.

The cold water could have played a role in the mistake. If the man were submerged for an extended time, his body temperature would have dropped and dramatically reduced his heart rate, making his pulse extremely difficult to detect.

Because of that, in cases of systemic hypothermia, state guidelines instruct basic life support medics to assess circulation for up to 30 seconds because "the rate may be extremely slow."

"Do not presume death in the unresponsive, non-breathing, pulseless patient with suspected hypothermia," emphasizes life support protocol posted on the New Haven Sponsor Hospital Program Web site.

The sponsor hospital program is jointly run by Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Hospital of Saint Raphael and oversees EMS agencies that serve Greater New Haven.

Contacted by phone, director Albert Gambino indicated he was aware of Tuesday's situation, but said he was unsure what the role of the sponsor hospital program would play in the investigation.

He referred other questions to Grant.

Rob Smuts, the city's chief administrative officer, also was aware of the incident, but said he wasn't briefed on details.

"It's obviously a source of concern. You do occasionally read about these things happening," he said. He said the probe would look at two things: How the mistake was made in the first place, and how it took so long to detect.

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