Chicago Family Awarded $50 Million From City In Teen's Asthma Death After Late 911 Response

Jet, Dec 25, 2000

A Cook County (IL) jury recently awarded $50 million to the parents of a 19-year-old male who died of an asthma attack before paramedics could arrive from a firehouse a block away from the family's South Side home.

The parents of Douglas Grant blamed his March 16, 1997, death on slow and inadequate response by 911 system operators working for the Chicago Fire Department.

The Grants said that their initial 911 call after their son suffered the asthma attack went first to the police department, which properly switched it over to the fire department, but no fire department operator answered the call until the 14th ring.

According to reports, the family called again when Doug stopped breathing. This time the fire department operator picked up the call on the 26th ring.

The jury ruled that the death of the teen was a result of the city's willful and wanton actions.

According to the family's attorney Jill Webb, these actions showed utter disregard for Grant by not getting an ambulance to his home in a timely fashion as well as not giving the family instructions over the phone about how to perform CPR, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

Paramedics who appeared at the trial offered no reason why it took them five minutes to travel the one-block distance from their firehouse to the Grant home.

Jennifer Hoyle, a spokeswoman for the city of Chicago's Law Department, said the $50 million award was probably the largest of its kind ever levied against the city in the case of a single death or injury.