Authorities: Paramedics called coroner for man who survived gunshot

By Mary Manning

Published Tuesday, April 21, 2009 | 3:14 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, April 21, 2009 | 4:25 p.m.

Two Clark County paramedics are under investigation after answering a call in eastern Las Vegas where they found a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and thought he was dead — so they didn't treat him immediately. Then the man was found to be alive but survived only two more days.

The incident happened Thursday at a mobile home park in the 5300 block of Twain Avenue in eastern Las Vegas, said Scott Allison, spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department. Paramedics arrived about 1:40 p.m. then examined the man, who had a single gunshot wound to his head and was stretched out on the ground outside a mobile home, Allison said.

Allison said an ambulance crew also arrived on scene and told the paramedics the man had a pulse and was breathing, but the paramedics had already called the Clark County Coroner's Office.

After a coroner's representative arrived, more ambulances, police and supervisors arrived at the mobile home park, Allison said.

The 71-year-old Las Vegas man survived for two days, then died Saturday at a hospital from the gunshot wound, a spokeswoman for the coroner said today.

The man's son told authorities that his father had recently learned he had a terminal illness.

The Clark County Fire Department paramedic and EMT involved in the attempted suicide call are not responding to medical calls while an internal review continues, Allison said. Neither firefighter has been identified.

"But they are functioning as firefighters," Allison said.

Medicwest Ambulance Service, the company that sent a unit to the event, had no comment, said Tony Greenway, a spokesman for Medicwest.

The Southern Nevada Health District is conducting an independent investigation into the incident, health district spokeswoman Stephanie Bethel said.