Brickbat: Please Wait Outside

Seattle officials have agreed to pay $1.86 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of William Yurek, who died of a heart attack. His son called 911 when Yurek began experiencing symptoms. Paramedics arrived within six minutes, but they waited another 13 minutes before entering his apartment and beginning efforts to save him. In dispatch records, Yurek's apartment had a cautionary note indicating persons hostile to first responders. The paramedics were not supposed to enter without a police escort. But the lawsuit said that Yurek was not hostile to first responders and that the note was placed on the apartment because of a previous tenant and never removed. Four minutes after Yurek's son called 911 a second time, paramedics came into the apartment even though the police had not arrived and began to administer aid.