Monongalia County 911 found liable in man’s death

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When a matter of minutes could have saved Joseph Johnson’s life in 2008, no ambulances arrived at his home despite his wife’s three calls to Monongalia County’s 911 department.

The string of broken communications between the 911 agency and ambulance dispatchers — as well as emergency officials’ failure to alert the ER staff when Johnson’s wife eventually drove him to Ruby Memorial Hospital herself — led to an $885,000 verdict this week. A Monongalia County jury found that MECCA (the Monongalia County 911 department) and Monongalia County were liable for “willful or wanton misconduct” and the county proximately caused Johnson’s death.

Johnson died May 12, 2008, the day after his wife called 911 three times within a span of 15 minutes but help never arrived.

“Mr. Johnson is greatly missed by Mrs. Johnson and her family, but the verdict does help to provide justice in the sorrow,” said the Johnsons’ attorney, Badder Giggenbach. “We had an expert testify if Mr. Johnson had received oxygen five minutes sooner he would have survived.”

According to the complaint filed with the Monongalia County Circuit Court, Judith Johnson first called 911 at 11:34 a.m. on May, 11, 2008, complaining that her husband was having trouble breathing. Johnson was assured an ambulance was on the way. MECCA sent tones for an ambulance to be dispatched from Mon EMS but the only two units available were out on other calls. MECCA also sent tones to Morgantown Jan-Care but no one responded.

“Mr. Johnson was a Vietnam veteran and had contracted lung cancer from exposure to Agent Orange and had one lung removed,” said Giggenbach. “He only had one lung and that lung had collapsed.”

Judith Johnson placed a second call to 911 at 11:40 a.m. to report her husband’s condition was worsening and that it should have only taken two to three minutes for the ambulance to arrive at their home. Johnson again was assured by the operator that an ambulance was on its way.

“Jan-Care was not communicating whatsoever with MECCA, and MECCA had no word that Jan-Care would not respond,” said Giggenbach.

A third call was placed to 911 three minutes later by Johnson who said she couldn’t wait any longer and was taking her husband to Ruby Memorial Hospital. She asked the operator to notify the hospital that they were coming but no one at the hospital was notified .

Giggenbach contended there were no clear indications given to Mrs. Johnson that there were no ambulances available.

“Had she known she could have taken him to the hospital herself.”

Giggenbach said the Johnsons settled their lawsuit with Jan-Care for the sum of $75,000.