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Oct 25, 2007 10:32 pm US/Central
Marathon Emergency Meltdown: Unanswered Questions
Deceased Runner Reportedly Had A Pulse When An Ambulance Finally Reached Him On Race Day
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The 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.
The city told CBS 2 repeatedly no Chicago ambulance was dispatched. So he waited, and our sources on the scene confirm he was still alive and had a pulse as crucial minutes elapsed.
Fire department officials originally told the 2 investigators they were never sent to help Schieber. Instead, by chance, an ambulance traveling all the way from Niles was flagged down.
Authorities said a defibrillator was used on Schieber four times to try and get a pulse while he was on the ground. But sources who were here at the scene on Ashland Avenue that day say that's not true; they didn't even have to do CPR because the father of three and Michigan police officer had a pulse until he was put in the ambulance.
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.
As CBS 2 reported earlier this week, the Niles crew was going to take Schieber to UIC Medical Center. But the ambulance got lost and the paramedics on-board said they couldn't get through on the dispatch radio to get directions.
They passed by two other hospitals before ending up at the veteran's hospital where sources say no one was expecting them.
Because of the CBS 2 investigation late Thursday night the Chicago Office of Emergency Management says it made a mistake and has now found a record of the 911 calls that CBS 2 uncovered.
They're also changing their story about not sending a Chicago ambulance to help. They now say they did, but when it finally showed up the Niles ambulance had already left the scene.
It took the Chicago crew 10 minutes to tell dispatch that they couldn't find the fallen runner. Fire officials say they are looking into that, but it appears Niles had already left the scene.
But they do say they co-operating with an investigation into what happened to Schieber.
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