UPDATE: One Fired After Probe Into Death of 'NYT' Reporter

By: E&P Staff An official and long-awaited report from the Washington, D.C. inspector general says emergency responders, police and hospital staffers committed "multiple failures" on the night longtime New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum was beaten and robbed in his Northwest Washington neighborhood. Rosenbaum died at Howard University Hospital, two days after the January 6 attack.

Details of the report emerged Friday. On Sunday, The Washington Post reported: "The D.C. fire chief has fired an emergency medical technician involved in the botched response to a deadly assault on a veteran journalist and has disciplined two supervisors who allowed that technician to keep working, government sources said yesterday."

Disciplinary action also has been taken against two police officers called to the scene, according to a government official.

The report, from the office of the IG, Charles J. Willoughby, concluded that firefighters and emergency medics didn't properly assess Rosenbaum's condition. An ambulance driver got lost on the way to the scene. Nurses at the hospital failed to properly assess the victim or follow care standards. Police did not secure the scene or conduct an adequate preliminary investigation.

Among the findings from the report obtained by E&P:

--The firefighter in charge of the emergency response crew that night "did not have a current CPR certification as required."

--"None of the firefighters/EMTs performed a complete assessment of the patient, and not one of the patient's vital signs was recorded at the scene."

--"The ambulance driver got lost after being dispatched...and then did not take a direct route to Grammercy Street. This error added 6 minutes to the trip."

--"Although Ambulance 18 was closest to Sibley Hospital, the EMT in charge, for personal reasons, decided to transport the patient to Howard," which is 1.85 miles further away. The Inspector General's team asked why they did not take the patient to Sibley Hospital. "EMT 1 stated, 'We can go where we want to go. [Howard] was available, and he was deemed a low priority.'"

--At the hospital, a nurse found that Rosenbaum's temperature was low, and responded by putting a blanket on him.

-- "Physician?s poor handwriting impeded nurses? ability to read documentation. Emergency Department staff complained consistently that Doctor 1?s handwriting is extremely difficult to read." The Inspector General's team "could not read Emergency Department documents written by Doctor 1 related to Mr. Rosenbaum?s care and had to ask her to decipher the writing. For example, the Emergency Physician Record I, 'Chief Complaint,' section is not legible. When shown the document, Doctor 1 read it for the interviewers, indicating that the text noted the patient?s mental status and that his HPI 70 could not be obtained, he was uncommunicative, and he had vomit on his clothing."

Mayor Anthony Williams said significant reforms are needed.

"Multiple failures during a single evening...suggest an impaired work ethic that must be addressed before it becomes pervasive," says the summary of the report. The report recommends changes, including "promptly" reassigning, retraining or removing poorly performing emergency medical workers.

D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson, head of the council committee that oversees the police and fire departments, called the report "damning" and said, according to the Washington Post, "there is every indication that was not an isolated incident." He said some people should be fired.

The district's fire chief, Adrian Thompson, told WTOP Radio that he promises to implement a more comprehensive system for first responders to document what they do in the field.

On Thursday, the two men accused of killing Rosenbaum were indicted on conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors say Michael Hamlin and Percy Jordan conspired not only the deadly robbery of Rosenbaum but two other holdups -- one on the same day Rosenbaum was attacked.