Widow Says Husband's Body Left On Street For 3 Hours

BRADENTON, FL – A month after a 78-year-old man’s body was left on the side of a road for three hours, Manatee County officials will meet Tuesday, March 27, to discuss revising the policies for emergency services technicians and paramedics who respond to the scene of a body found in a public place.

Julie Ross said she’s glad the county is considering changes for the sake of other families but added that the discussion comes too late to protect the dignity of her husband of 43 years, Ty Ross.

At the meeting, Manatee County Information Outreach Manager Nicholas Azzara said Manatee County EMS Chief Paul DiCicco and Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells plan to review the existing EMS protocol for the county that prevents paramedics and emergency technicians from transporting a person who has been pronounced dead in a public place.

Residents of Palma Sola Marina, Julie Ross was attending Pilates class on the morning of Feb. 27 when her husband took their dogs, Jake and Holly, for a walk around the marina. Ross said she routinely turns off her cell phone during class so it won’t ring and disturb the other class members.

While on the walk, Ross had a fatal heart attack. Neighbors at Palma Sola Marina found him lying by the side of the road and called emergency services.

“I didn’t know what had happened until I turned my phone back on and saw a message from my niece telling me to call her right away,” Julie Ross said. “It was unusual for her to leave a message like that so I knew something was wrong. She told me what happened and then came and got me.”

When Ross and her niece, Carrie Price Whaley, arrived at the scene, her husband’s body was lying half in the grass and half in the street. Their dogs refused to leave his side.

A Manatee County sheriff’s deputy was the only official on the scene. He told Ross that county paramedics tried to revive her husband. When they were unsuccessful, they departed, leaving Ty Ross where he had fallen although they did place a sheet over the body.

When she asked why the ambulance hadn’t removed his body from the scene, she was told that it’s Manatee County EMS policy not to transport people who have died of natural causes. The deputy advised her to call a funeral home to have the body removed.

Julie Ross said she was horrified that EMS would simply leave her husband’s body out in the open. Neighbors brought the grieving widow a lounge chair and umbrella while she waited for the funeral home to pick her husband up. She estimates that her husband’s body was lying by the side of the road for three hours.

“I just waited,” she said, adding that it seemed undignified to leave her husband lying on the side of the road in the hot sun with fire ants crawling around him. “I guess I was kind of numb. At a time like that, all you’re thinking about is getting through it. But it seemed so disrespectful to just leave him there.”

After she recovered from the shock, Ross said she and her niece began calling county officials to question why her husband hadn’t been transported to a morgue or funeral home.

“My niece very upset,” Ross said. “She called EMS and county commissioners but got nowhere until we contacted the media.”

According to a March 22 memorandum from Manatee County Director of Public Safety Robert Smith to County Administrator Ed Hunzeker, EMS arrived at the scene at 8:44 and performed CPR. When the EMS crew determined that there was nothing more it could do, it called the sheriff’s office to have a deputy dispatched to the scene.

“Given that no family was present, locating next of kin was difficult,” Smith said.

His version of what happened matches Ross’ story. He said the EMS crew remained at the scene for about an hour until the deputy arrived.

“It was later determined that the patient’s wife was in an exercise class with her cellular telephone turned off,” Smith said. “The wife of the patient was brought to the scene by a family member approximately 90 minutes after the patient was determined to be dead by the EMS crew.”

Smith said Julie Ross then waited another 90 minutes until the Griffith and Cline Funeral Home arrived to transport her husband’s body.

He said the EMS crew followed county procedures dictating that the fire department and an EMS crew respond to the scene. If the person is determined to be beyond help or if efforts to resuscitate the person are ineffective, the closest hospital is contacted to request a physician’s order to terminate effort.

Smith said, once the physician agrees to sign the death certificate, a funeral home is contacted to transport the body.

However, if the physician does not sign the death certificate because the manner of death is suspicious or criminal, a contracted ambulance company is called to take the body to the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Depending on the availability of the physician, the time it takes for the next of kin to arrive and the need to collect evidence at the scene, “this can be a time-consuming process,” Smith said.

Nevertheless, he agreed the wait can be distressing for a grieving family member.

“As a result of this case, it has been determined that there is a need for policy improvement pertaining to the death of persons in public locations,” he told Hunzeker.

Ross said she’s satisfied that the county will make any necessary policy changes and said she isn’t interested in pursuing the matter any further.

“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she said. “But I just want to put it all behind me.”

Image via Julie Ross