Four Beavercreek Township Fire Department employees have filed a grievance disputing disciplinary action taken against them alleging they did not follow township policies/procedures and medical protocols, according to township records.
Township firefighters Chris Fugate, Edward Daulton and Jeremy Renner were issued written reprimands in May related to their actions during an emergency medical call, the records show. Lt. Dave Mallonee was issued a verbal reprimand for the same incident, according to the documents.
The firefighters and Mallonee responded to a call at a home on Terrace Glen Court on March 12. When they arrived they found an 83-year-old male unresponsive on the floor. The patient was transported to Soin Medical Center for treatment and later died. It is unclear when his death occurred.
More than a month after the patient was taken to the hospital, a Kettering Health Network Coordinator, Meredith Lawhorn, asked the township to review the response to the call in an email dated April 21.
Lawhorn states the patient was taken to the hospital on a backboard for chest compressions only and C-collar (cervical collar) was not placed on the patient.
“The patient should have been fully immobilized due to an altered mental status and the patient’s mechanism,” Lawhorn wrote.
The patient suffered a neck injury that was discovered by the hospital through x-rays, according to the township discipline records.
The township issued the reprimands against the firefighters and Mallonee after determining they violated the Greater Miami Valley EMS Council’s standing orders.
The township and the representative for the firefighters’ union have declined to comment.