Dead Man's Parents Were Not Called in EMS Delay Case

The Millers have planned a viewing of his body for today and have set up a fund in their son's name to help the D.C. fire and EMS department buy GPS devices, in the hope that that emergency vehicles never again get lost looking for people in need.

"We know we're not going to get our son back," Jay Miller said. "Hopefully, this will never happen again to anyone."

In response to the incident, the department announced yesterday that it has purchased 120 GPS devices for its emergency vehicles. The first batch has come in.

According to the D.C. fire and EMS department, the events that led to Miller's death started at 1 p.m. at 10 G Street NE, when he fell to the ground in an apparent seizure.

D.C. rescue workers responding to the 911 call went to the wrong block looking for him, then gave up until a second report came in saying that Miller was no longer breathing. Rescue workers realized their mistake and made it to the scene, where they were joined by other emergency personnel and tried to revive him, the fire and EMS department said.

When the emergency personnel arrived, Miller was on the ground outside an office building. A security guard was performing CPR.

He was pronounced dead at Howard University Hospital, where he was taken 34 minutes 15 seconds after the first 911 call, officials said. The hospital is less than two miles away.

The city has a goal of responding to critical medical calls with an emergency medical technician and a defibrillator within 6 minutes 30 seconds of dispatch, the department said. Paramedics are to arrive within eight minutes.

In Miller's case, it took the first responder more than 11 minutes to arrive, and more than 14 minutes went by before a technician who could perform advanced life support was on the scene.

Also, according to the fire and EMS department, the delay in first finding Miller was compounded because the 911 caller could not be reached when there was confusion about Miller's whereabouts.

But according to the 911 transcript, the caller clearly gave a callback number with his cellphone. The caller said yesterday that he never got a call back from the dispatcher, and it wasn't until he called again, seven minutes later, saying the situation was dire that the emergency vehicle resumed looking for Miller.

Staff writer Elissa Silverman and researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.