Columbus E. Brooks Jr., 18, lay bleeding from a gunshot wound on a sidewalk near Perkins Park when Buffalo firefighters and paramedics arrived to treat him around 9:30 p.m. July 5.
It was a speedy response, given that a 911 call about a man getting shot in the abdomen came in at approximately 9:27 p.m.
But by the time the ambulance departed the area for Erie County Medical Center, it was already after 10 p.m. – a 30-minute delay that family members believe cost Brooks his life. He was pronounced dead at 10:10 p.m., according to court papers.
About two dozen friends and relatives of Brooks gathered Thursday in the same park at Dupont Street and Woodlawn Avenue where Brooks was shot while playing basketball to assert that the city and ambulance service AMR didn’t do enough to save the young man’s life that night.
Athenia Cyrus, Brooks’ sister, earlier this month filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the city and AMR of negligence through a delay in care and medical treatment for her brother.
“The call went out all over the airwaves, even to ECMC and other emergency hospital services. Reports show that ECMC cleared an operating room, and they were ready and waiting to treat him,” said attorney Mark A. Overall, who is representing Cyrus. “Despite arriving at approximately 9:30, they did not load him onto the gurney into the ambulance to transport him to ECMC until 10:03, 30 minutes later.”
A spokesman for the city was not available Thursday to comment. A representative for AMR responded in an email that the company does not comment on pending litigation.
Firefighters performed chest compressions at the scene, and AMR personnel twice gave Brooks epinephrine and inserted a tube into his trachea to get air inside his lungs, according to court papers.
“If they had immediately transported him to the hospital where doctors were ready and waiting to treat him, then the overwhelming likelihood is that Columbus would still be with us…
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