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Two HFD paramedics suspended after January medical call
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke has more about the incident and what led up to the paramedics being suspended.
HOUSTON - "I really thought they were playing," said Stacy Williams. "I mean even though it was serious I couldn’t believe what they were saying."
As you can see by his infectious smile and laugh, 14-year-old Jacah Jefferson is very much alive.
When he was just five months old, Jacah became a victim of shaken baby syndrome.
"He’s non-verbal, he’s in a wheelchair, he has cerebral palsy," Williams said.
The person responsible went to prison.
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Stacy Williams, Jacah’s grandmother by marriage, became his primary care giver.
She says she called paramedics January 26 because he hadn’t urinated in a 24-hour period.
"I just want to know if they can give him a catheter or something to make him urinate," said Williams.
But instead this is what one of two HFD paramedics told her.
"Ma’am there’s no pulse, he’s gone," she said.
Williams says she told them repeatedly, because of his medical issues, Jacah has a low body temperature and weak pulse.
"They got the box, put the little things on him, and he showed me on the box. ‘See ma’am no heart rate, he’s gone.’ I said stop saying that and do something," Williams said. ‘Ma’am, I’m going to be honest with you, it’s going to take an act of God.‘ "Well, I believe in him. While we’re doing this interchange, he started throwing up out of his nose," she said.
The hospital was close, so a frustrated Williams decides she would take Jacah there.
"The big one said, ‘do you want us to do CPR?‘ I want you to do something," she told the paramedics.
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Williams says a third paramedic showed up and immediately sprung into action.
"So what did he see that they didn’t see and they had been with me 15 to 20 minutes," said Williams.
Jacah spent 31 days in the hospital.
Houston Fire Chief Sam Pena says the Category 4 complaints filed against the two paramedics were sustained.
They were suspended for several days.