Two\u00a0emergency medical service workers\u00a0in Illinois have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 35-year-old patient under their care after improperly restraining him in an ambulance.
\nSangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright said Tuesday in a press conference that LifeStar EMS workers Peggy Finley, 44, and Peter Cadigan, 50, were charged in the death of 35-year-old Earl L. Moore Jr. on Dec. 18.
\nWright said police were called to Moore’s residence and found him suffering\u00a0from a hallucinatory episode\u00a0and immediately called EMS for patient care.
\nFinley and Cadigan were booked into the Sangamon County Jail on a $1 million bond each. If found guilty, both EMS workers face up to\u00a020 to 60 years in prison.
\nLifeStar Ambulance Service did not immediately reply to Fox New’s Digitals request for comment.
\nFinley and Cadigan were tasked with transporting Moore in an ambulance. The pair allegedly placed\u00a0Moore face-down on a paramedic stretcher\u00a0and incorrectly tied him down with a medical strap across Moore’s back and lower body.
\n“Following the arrival of EMS, Earl Moore Jr. became the victim of acts which caused his death at the hands of individuals called by police to provide emergency medical care,” Wright said.
\nAn autopsy revealed that Moore\u00a0died from “compressional and positional asphyxia due to prone face-down restraint on a paramedic transportation cot stretcher by tightened straps across the back.”
\nThe pair should have known from their training and experience that positioning a patient in such a way “would create a substantial probability of great bodily harm or death,” Wright added.<\/p>\n