The Nation - News from Feb. 21, 1989

Tapes disputed charges by paramedics who said they refused to enter the Chicago Housing Authority apartment of a dying 9-year-old asthmatic boy because they were being pelted by eggs and rocks. Carl Jarnagin suffocated while suffering the severe asthma attack Dec. 12. His mother, Sharon Jarnagin, filed a $60-million suit against the city and Fire Department two days later, alleging the paramedics refused to help her son because they lived in a CHA complex. The recordings cover 32 minutes of telephone and radio conversations among the two paramedics, an ambulance dispatcher, the Police Department and the boy’s family members, who made eight calls to 911 during the incident. There is no indication on the tapes that police in a squad car that followed close behind the ambulance saw any assault on the ambulance.