SIOUX CITY — A former Sioux City Fire Rescue paramedic is facing an involuntary manslaughter charge for the 2023 death of a patient who the Woodbury County Attorney’s Office says was given the wrong medication and later died.
Charges were filed Thursday against Deanna Fay LaMere for allegedly giving 26-year-old James Foster Jr. a dose of the drug rocuronium instead of the drug ketamine in an attempt to get Foster to calm down during a medical assistance call.
Court documents state that Sioux City Police were called to the 2700 block of Third Street at about 3:51 a.m. on Aug. 18, 2023 for reports of a male “freaking out and laying in the street rolling around.” When the officer arrived at the scene, they located Foster and determined he wanted medical assistance despite his “not making any sense.”
Sioux City Fire Rescue and paramedics arrived shortly after, according to court documents, and a cot was brought out to get Foster in the ambulance and to the hospital. “They could not get Foster to calm down,” the documents said.
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Documents state the defendant was the only person on the scene qualified to administer medication and was the person who decided to do so. “Because they were unable to get Foster calmed down to get him safely on the cot for transport, the defendant made the decision to give Foster ketamine to help calm him down,” the filing stated. “The defendant went back to the ambulance to obtain the ketamine. The defendant returned with a syringe and needle and with the help of one of the firefighters administered the medication on Foster’s arm.”
After going back to get a second dose of ketamine, the defendant realized Foster had been injected with the wrong medication (the filing said).
“Instead of Ketamine, the defendant had given Foster rocuronium. Rocuronium is only used in extreme cases,” the filing stated. “And once administered, the patient has to be intubated within thirty 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.”
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Foster reportedly said he could not breathe and shortly after went limp and unconscious. During the entire trip to the hospital, he was given CPR. Foster died two days later on Aug. 20, 2023. The Office of the Iowa State Medical Examiner found he died due to “global hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy” and “cardiac arrest due to administration of rocuronium,” documents stated.
“As a paramedic, the defendant is required to verify the medication before drawing it up and administering it,” the filing stated. “The defendant admitted she failed to do this. After the defendant realized she had administered the wrong medication, she did not take the appropriate steps to notify anyone or treat the patient any different. It wasn’t until they got to the emergency room at Mercy One Medical Center that the defendant told the ER physician about the medication error.”
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