D.C. authorities are investigating whether the care provided at Greater Southeast Community Hospital to a firefighter candidate who fell ill after physical fitness testing might have contributed to his deteriorating condition and eventual death.
Alan Etter, spokesman with D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, confirmed that investigators are reviewing Greater Southeast’s treatment of 23-year-old Eric Allen, of Temple Hills, who was brought there Sunday morning and died less than 24 hours later. All aspects of the response are being looked at, Etter said.
The cause of death remains unknown.
Allen, who was seeking to earn a slot as a firefighter recruit, had successfully finished a stair climbing exercise at the department’s training academy at about 10 a.m. Sunday when he began having trouble breathing.
He was cared for at the scene and transported to Greater Southeast.
Allen was moved to the hospital’s waiting area upon arrival and was relocated to the emergency room some time later in a wheelchair, sources told The Examiner.
An employee at the hospital who asked not to be identified for fear of being fired said Allen arrived with a “yellowish hue,” and it wasn’t long before his nail beds turned blue.
He was fitted with an oxygen mask, the employee said, but the staff was slow to perform basic lab work, never got a CT scan and didn’t do an arterial blood gas test — a measurement of oxygen, carbon dioxide and bicarbonate in the blood — until after Allen vomited and started seizing.
Allen was later moved by helicopter to Washington Hospital Center, where he died Monday morning.
“It isn’t uncommon for hospitals to send us patients they can’t handle,” said Paula Faria, Washington Hospital Center spokeswoman.
After years of declining patient care, D.C. officials hope for a resurgence of Greater Southeast with its subsidized sale to Specialty Hospitals of Washington. But the deal has not yet been finalized, and the improvements promised for the critical facility have not been implemented.
Greater Southeast officials did not return calls for comment.
The on-site paramedic who first treated Allen at the training academy is currently on no-patient contact.
Kenneth Lyons, president of the paramedics union, said Allen’s EMS care was appropriate.
The medical examiner and fire department investigations are continuing.
