Phoenix firefighter negligence during a routine 911 call in January 2024 has cost the city $605,000 after a wrongful death lawsuit alleged that crew members dropped a 76-year-old man on his head and back while carrying him in a rolling office chair, leaving him in a vegetative state before he died.
The Phoenix Fire Department settled the claim brought by the wife of Ronald Shuck, who died on 23 January 2024. The Phoenix City Council voted unanimously to approve the settlement at its 1 July meeting.
What the complaint alleges
On or about 5 January 2024, Shuck was unable to rise from the toilet. His wife called 911, and Phoenix firefighters attended his trailer home. According to the wrongful death complaint, the crew placed Shuck in a desk chair with rollers to assess his vitals and then recommended hospital transport by ambulance.
When the ambulance arrived, four firefighters allegedly attempted to carry Shuck down four entry steps using the same desk chair rather than a gurney. The complaint states Shuck was facing backward when the firefighters lost control, causing him to ‘fall out of the chair backwards hitting the concrete stairs, cement, and then the ground with his head and upper back.’
His wife witnessed the fall. Shuck broke his neck and back, and was transported to hospital where he was ‘diagnosed with injuries caused by the drop,’ per the complaint. He never recovered the ability to walk, speak, eat, or drink.
The complaint concluded: ‘He was unable to walk and should have been carried out to the ambulance on a gurney and/or proper transport device with restraints and straps. The defendants and each of them, recklessly created an unsafe condition.’
The lawsuit accused the locally reported Phoenix Fire Department of employing firefighters who were ‘improperly trained and were grossly negligent’ in the care provided to Shuck.
Phoenix firefighter negligence and a pattern of EMS settlements
The Shuck settlement was one of eight legal settlements the council approved at its 1 July session. KJZZ reported that those eight settlements totalled roughly $1.6 million combined.
The Shuck case was not the only EMS-related wrongful death claim resolved against Phoenix in recent weeks. In a separate matter, the city agreed to a $2 million settlement over the April 2022 death of a two-year-old boy, Abraham Clugston. His parents alleged that Phoenix firefighter negligence caused his death after he was not transported to Phoenix Children’s Hospital following an initial EMS evaluation. A medical expert cited in that lawsuit stated his chances of death were less than 10% had he been transported after the first assessment, according to AZFamily.
Ryan Shuck, Ronald’s son, told NBC affiliate KPNX in February 2024 that his father ‘was not a small person,’ and said he could not understand why the crew would ‘choose’ a ‘cheap roller chair with no armrests’ over a gurney. EMS1, a trade publication for the emergency medical services sector, noted that the council’s approval came more than two years after Shuck’s death.
‘Someone should suffer the consequences for what they did,’ Ryan Shuck said. ‘He could no longer move or talk, or eat or drink. Watching him take his last breath was probably the hardest moment of my life.’
The city of Phoenix did not respond to requests for comment. Subject to any further proceedings, the settlement brings the civil litigation to a close, though the two EMS-related payouts within weeks of each other will sharpen scrutiny of the department’s training protocols ahead of any council review.
