The New York City Fire Department has launched an investigation to determine whether a first responder to the Manhattan Correctional Center posted about the death of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein before media outlets first reported on it.
BuzzFeed News reports a 4chan user posted details about Epstein’s death 38 minutes before ABC News reporter Aaron Katersky first tweeted about Epstein’s death at 8:54 a.m. on Saturday.
Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Sources tell @abc Epstein committed suicide at MCC Manhattan
— Aaron Katersky (@AaronKatersky) August 10, 2019
“dont ask me how I know, but Epstein died an hour ago from hanging, cardiac arrest. Screencap this,” the post said, which was published at 8:16 a.m.
The user followed up on the post with medical actions that they said were taken in an attempt to revive Epstein, whose body was discovered around 6:30 a.m.: “worked asystole arrest for 40 minutes, als intubated in the field/epi/2 liters NS infused. Telemetry advised bicarb and D50 in filed. Pt transported to Lower Manhattan ER and worked for 20 minutes and called. Hospital administrator was alerted, preparing statements.”
“Telemetry implies the paramedics were in contact with a medical control hospital who then gave orders to give Sodium Bicarbonate, bicarb which is designed to reverse the acid buildup in the blood from prolonged cardiac arrest,” Dr. Keith Wesley explained, saying what the post describes is standard practice for paramedics.
Frank Dwyer, a Deputy Commissioner for FDNY, told BuzzFeed News he “could not verify the accuracy” of information in the 4chan post, adding any medical personnel who divulges patient information without consent is in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
“The department will review this incident,” he said.
Questions have swirled around Epstein’s death and how he was able to reportedly hang himself. He was being held at the Manhattan Correctional Center to await trial next year on charges of child sex trafficking.
The Associated Press revealed Monday that one of the two people on duty was not a correctional officer and they had failed to check on Epstein every 30 minutes, even after he reportedly attempted to commit suicide a few weeks prior.
