SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV/Gray News) – A former paramedic with Sioux City Fire Rescue faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly giving a patient the wrong medication before that patient died.
In a complaint filed Thursday, Woodbury County prosecutors said on Aug. 18, 2023, paramedic Deanna LaMere responded to a call for medical assistance on Third Street.
LaMere found 26-year-old James Foster, Jr., in distress. But, first responders said they couldn’t get Foster onto a cot to take him to the hospital because he wouldn’t calm down.
According to prosecutors, LaMere was the paramedic in charge and the only person at the scene qualified to administer medication. She decided to give a dose of the drug ketamine to help Foster calm down.
However, authorities said LaMere went back to the ambulance to get a second dose of ketamine only to realize she had injected Foster with rocuronium.
Prosecutors said rocuronium is only given in “extreme cases”. Once administered, the patient has to be intubated within 30 seconds to a minute if the medication is administered by IV. Because Foster was administered the drug via injection, the drug would take longer to have an effect.
Foster told first responders that he couldn’t breathe, and then became unconscious. Paramedics performed CPR on the way to the hospital.
Foster died two days later.
Prosecutors in the case allege LaMere knew what rocuronium would do and what the required treatments after injection for rocuronium are. However, she did not take the appropriate actions even after realizing the medication error.
They continued, saying that LaMere also failed to verify the medication before drawing it up, something she is required to do.
LaMere didn’t notify anyone of the medication error until telling an emergency room physician at MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center, prosecutors said.
The state medical examiner found that Foster died due to global hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and cardiac arrest caused by the administration of rocuronium.
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