Thursday, October 25, 2007

More questions surrounding Chicago Marathon runner's death

Earlier this week it was reported that the suburban ambulance crew that took Chad Scheiber, the 35 year-old runner who died in this month's Chicago Marathon, not only got lost, but took the Michigan father of three to to the wrong hospital.

Ironically, an official race sponsor, CBS 2 Chicago, is now focusing on the City of Chicago in its latest look at what occurred that afternoon:

CBS 2 Investigators have uncovered another serious emergency response failure at this year's Chicago Marathon. More questions are being raised about what happened to 35-year-old runner Chad Schieber after he collapsed. Did calls to 911 go unanswered?

As CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini reports, Schieber was still alive and had a pulse but critical time passed as he lay dying in the street. For days Chicago officials claimed nobody called 911 for him. So the 2 Investigators went digging and found that simply is not true.

A picture taken on marathon day holds the clue. In it he's running, his bib with number 12689 is pinned to him. The city claimed there were no 911 calls involving his collapse but our 2 Investigators found that there were at least two calls. In fact, one caller said a male was passed out, and even gave Schieber's exact bib number and location.

More...

We've also learned that from the time of the first 911 call it took nearly a half hour to get Schieber from the course to a hospital, even though the closest emergency room was only six blocks away.

It gets worse. The Niles crew hadn't been dispatched for Scheiber, the suburban ambulance was flagged down by people on the street--and that the hospital where Scheiber ended up--Westside VA--wasn't expecting the runner.

Related posts:

Chicago Marathon: Ambulance driver got lost, took dead runner to wrong hospital

A participant's view of the cancelled Chicago Marathon: UPDATED

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