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The parents of a 26-year-old scuba diver who died after a scuba accident have settled for an undisclosed amount in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against American Medical Response, the ambulance company that responded to the scene.
The lawsuit also included Monterey County, CA where the incident took place because the county used AMR’s ambulance services. The suit had claimed there was negligence involved on the part of the paramedics who responded to the scene. The lawsuit also claimed that both paramedics had taken heroin earlier in the day.
The scuba diver, Mollie Suh Yaley, a dive master and scuba instructor, was found unconscious by lifeguards in 15 feet of water. It is believed that the young woman was underwater and unconscious for two to three minutes.
The lawsuit contended that the ambulance took too long to get to the scene and that the paramedics stopped giving Yaley resuscitation after 22 minutes. A paramedic declared the woman to be dead but four minutes later via radio a doctor ordered him to restart life-saving measures.
The woman remained in a coma for 15 days before dying in the hospital.
The ambulance company’s dispatch system was not working at the time the call came in. The system had been down for maintenance. In lieu of computerized response the county 911 office was required to telephone the ambulance company. AMR officials say that the call did not come until five minutes after the incident was first reported.
The paramedics were Alfonso Martorella and Bruce Faucett. Martorella confessed that both men were using heroin earlier in the day. Monterey County changed their ambulance service to another carrier.
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