North Carolina's appeals court is considering a lawsuit filed after a man who was alive was declared dead, put in a body bag, and taken to a morgue.
Court of Appeals judges are considering whether to allow the lawsuit, which contends that the mistake led to injuries from which Larry D. Green, 34, may never recover, the Raleigh News & Observer reported yesterday.
Green's family and guardian sued officials to recoup money for Green's care in the Wilson rest home where he lives. He is bedridden and is fed through a tube.
"He needs care 24 hours a day," said Judith Vincent-Pope, an attorney from Cary who represents Green.
Franklin County officials settled their part of the lawsuit this summer for $1 million. Paramedics from the town of Louisburg are still fighting it.
A lower-court judge ruled this year that Franklin County's former medical examiner, J.B. Perdue, should face liability in state courts even though North Carolina law typically gives broad protection to civil servants who make mistakes on the job.
Vincent-Pope told appeals-court judges during a hearing Wednesday that Perdue was so negligent that his behavior should be seen as malicious. Negligence claims against state employees are typically heard by the State Industrial Commission, whose awards are capped, and the most Green could recoup is $500,000. "We don't think there's any evidence that he (Perdue) acted negligently," said Mabel Bullock, a special deputy attorney general.
Green was walking across a highway north of Louisburg in January 2005 when he was hit by a car.
A Louisburg paramedic found him face down in the road. When he checked for a pulse, he declared Gr een dead and never tried to resuscitate him.
When a county paramedic arrived, the first paramedic asked the second to again check Green for a pulse. The county paramedic said that his colleague's judgement was good enough for him, and he didn't check Green's vital signs.
Perdue then disregarded signs that Green was alive, including eye twitches and chest movements from breathing, the lawsuit alleges.
Perdue examined the body at the scene and at the morgue in Louisburg, but didn't notice that Green was still alive until about 21/2 hours after the accident. That was after a state Highway Patrol trooper asked Perdue to help determine from which direction Green was struck.
Perdue pulled Green from the refrigerator where he had been stored for more than an hour and saw more eye twitching, then called for paramedics, the lawsuit said.
Perdue, 72, resigned as Franklin County's medical examiner last year. He has been retired from his surgery practice for more than a decade and has let his medical license lapse.
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