Aldermen to weigh $5 million settlement after family accuses Chicago EMTs of leaving grandfather for dead
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Attorneys for the City of Chicago are recommending a $5 million settlement with a family who claims emergency medical technicians mistakenly left their 64-year-old grandfather for dead without providing proper medical care, after conducting a well-being check five years ago.
Whitfield Marshall's family filed a wrongful death suit against the city in 2019. The two sides reached a settlement agreement last August, on the same day a jury trial was set to begin, according to Cook County court records. At Monday's meeting of the City Council Finance Committee, city attorneys will recommend aldermen approve a $5 million settlement in the case.
On Feb. 20, 2019, the city received a 911 call for a well-being check at Marshall's home at 1633 W. Madison St., according to a lawsuit filed by his family.
When two Chicago Fire Department EMTs – identified as Thomas Henjowski and Michael O'Malley – arrived at the home, they found Marshall lying face down on the floor of his apartment, and believed he was "dead on arrival."
The lawsuit claims the two EMTs showed "an utter disregard for safety" by failing to check Marshall's vital signs, including his pulse, blood pressure, breathing rate, or blood oxygen level; failed to perform CPR or other life-saving treatments; and rather than taking him to a hospital emergency room, they left him in the apartment.
"O'Malley and Henjowski … had a duty to refrain from willfully and wantonly failing to exercise the knowledge, skill, and care used by reasonably careful emergency management technicians in the same or similar circumstances," the lawsuit states.
Four hours later, after Marshall's grandson, Gabray Carter, was notified his grandfather had died, he went to the apartment, and found Marshall still lying on the floor and still alive. Carter called 911, and an ambulance took Marshall to Stroger Hospital, where he died three days later from end-stage kidney disease, sepsis, and a brain disorder caused by a chemical imbalance in his blood.
If the proposed settlement with Marshall's family is approved in committee, the full City Council would take up the settlement on Wednesday.