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Doctors Fought Losing Battle to Save Dallies

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

When the ambulance arrived before dawn Tuesday at UCI Medical Center, the team of trauma doctors who struggled to save the life of Howard Dallies Jr. knew that this was more than just another emergency.

This one was different, they said, because it was a police officer who was shot in the abdomen and lay unconscious.

“This was someone who had been trying to help people,” said Dr. Kenneth Waxman, who joined nine other doctors in the surgery to save Dallies’ life. “This was very difficult for me.”

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Waxman, 43, who is director of trauma services at the medical center, said paramedics arrived at the emergency room about 3 a.m. Tuesday, just 15 minutes after police and fire paramedics had found the wounded officer lying in the street near his patrol car.

“When he arrived here, he was unconscious, and he never regained consciousness,” said Waxman. “The paramedics brought him into our hospital, carrying him on a stretcher. They brought him into our trauma resuscitation room, where he was rapidly evaluated, and then taken, very quickly, to the operating room.”

The medical battle to save the stricken police officer lasted about two hours. But Waxman indicated the odds were against the doctors from the beginning because the officer had lost too much blood.

“Every effort was made to stop the bleeding,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “But his wounds and shock were too severe and the efforts were unsuccessful.”

Waxman said about 10 doctors, himself included, and 12 nurses worked feverishly in the operating room. Outside the operating room, waiting anxiously, were the officer’s wife, fellow police officers and paramedics.

Waxman declined to discuss the officer’s specific injuries, saying that such information might be police evidence. But he said the officer suffered “multiple wounds and was bleeding into his abdomen and chest.”

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“He was very critically injured and in profound shock,” Waxman said.

The medical team worked as the emergency room clock marked passage of minutes, then hours. “I can’t tell you exactly how long it was, but it was running two hours or more,” Waxman said.

Ultimately, about 5 a.m., the battle was lost.

Waxman said he felt very strongly about the officer’s death. He is no stranger to death, the doctor noted. “But some deaths are especially difficult for me.”

The doctor added: “I think something like this (shooting) is an extreme violation of trust. This was an officer doing his job. But some people don’t respect a policeman’s uniform and authority, and this concerns me very much. I’m concerned that something’s eroding the entire system we have: the feeling we have about police officers. And I think that we must have some safety for police in doing their jobs.”

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