New Questions Emerge in Murder of Reporter

By: E&P Staff From the start, questions have swirled around the emergency treatment received by New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum after he was mugged in Washington, D.C., on the night of Jan. 6. Taken to the hospital, he later died from being hit on the head by his assailants (who were later arrested).

E&P has covered the developments, but the one reporter who has stayed on the case is Colbert King, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post. He has written a series of columns in the past month, probing the delay in reaching Rosenbaum on the street that night, then the failure to diagnose him with serious injuries. An official investigation is now underway.

Today, King returned to the subject with his most damning new information yet.

Relying on new documents, King reveals that the hospital and workers who took Rosenbaum to the hospital that night were quickly taken out of service when questions emerged about what had transpired. In fact, "very poor judgment" was cited that night.

Here are excepts from today?s column, available in full here.

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At 10:18 p.m. on Jan. 6, Ambulance 18, driven by Emergency Medical Technician Selena Walker, who was accompanied by Firefighter-EMT Michael Deems, arrived at Howard University Hospital with a robbed, beaten and soon-to-die "John Doe," later identified as New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum.

Amit Wadhwa, medical director of the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (FEMS), was working at Howard University Hospital on that Friday evening. At 1:43 a.m., more than three hours after Walker and Deems arrived with Rosenbaum, Wadhwa called the EMS senior duty officer, ordered Ambulance 18 taken out of service, and left word for Walker and Deems to send him individual written special reports on their handling of the patient.

Within days of the Rosenbaum killing, FEMS Chief Adrian Thompson stated publicly that the department's "providers" -- the firefighters on Engine 20, which arrived first on the scene, and the two Ambulance 18 EMTs who transported Rosenbaum to the hospital -- had met all of the department's pre-hospital standards of medical care.

As the entry [in the Medical Services log] indicates, on the night of the incident, Wadhwa had reached a contrary and decidedly less favorable conclusion.

He ordered Ambulance 18 taken out of service, citing "very poor judgment & TX [treatment]" on the part of the ambulance's EMTs, Walker and Deems. They had, according to Wadhwa, transported Rosenbaum as a Code 3 (stable) patient when in fact he was a Code 1 (unstable) patient. Code 1 warranted a transfer of Rosenbaum from Ambulance 18 -- a basic life support unit -- to an advanced life support unit staffed with skilled paramedics. That didn't happen. Sadly, an advanced life support unit was only a few blocks away.

What went wrong?

I have copies of written statements that Walker and Deems submitted to Wadhwa and Thompson as well as written statements that Engine 20 firefighters -- Anthony Fields, Frelimo D. Simba, Reginald Chandler and Michael A. Roy -- provided to their superiors.

In summary: Engine 20 personnel found a patient lying face-up on the sidewalk, in an altered mental status. He was not able to speak. They claim to have examined and assessed the patient and found no signs of trauma. (Note to the D.C. inspector general: Sworn testimony on this point is most desirable.)

The ambulance with Deems and Walker arrived on the scene. In separate reports, the EMTs described Rosenbaum as "incoherent." Both Engine 20 and Ambulance 18 workers said that Rosenbaum vomited numerous times while on the ground. Deems said the vomiting episodes continued during transport to the hospital.

Despite Rosenbaum's altered mental status and the unknown reason for it, other than suspicion that he was drunk, the workers did not "collar and board" him -- that is, stabilize his neck with a cervical collar and immobilize him on a backboard. Instead they sat him up and placed him on an ambulance cot.

EMT Deems wrote: "I then asked the crew member [with Engine 20] if a collar or board was needed, he stated, no 'he is just drunk and only the cot is needed.' The cot was removed from the ambulance and placed next to the Pt [Rosenbaum]. With help from E-20, the Pt was placed on the cot sitting straight up."

The discovery of Rosenbaum's extremely critical condition an hour after his arrival at the hospital apparently concerned Wadhwa. However, he might also have been disturbed to learn that the ambulance crew had assessed and given Rosenbaum a Glasgow Coma Score of 6, a red flag that cried out for a Code 1 transport, not the lower priority Code 3 he was assigned.

My request to speak with Wadhwa, the Engine 20 firefighters and Ambulance 18 EMTs was denied by the fire department. FEMS spokesman Alan Etter wrote in a March 16 e-mail: "Because the D.C. inspector general is still investigating this matter, we cannot allow access -- through the department -- to these individuals at this time." He said that while the individuals are free to express themselves on their own terms, "all statements relative to this specific case will be deferred until the completion of this investigation."

Now, pray tell: Does Chief Thompson still stand by his sunny appraisal?