CHICAGO– The family of a runner who died last month during the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon has hired a lawyer to investigate whether they should file a wrongful death lawsuit.
The attorney, Gilbert Ross of Chicago, said Friday he believes the Village of Niles ambulance that picked up Chad Schieber, 35, of Michigan got lost on its way to the hospital.
But Ross said it’s unclear how much time was lost and whether a faster response would have made a difference.
“What the family has asked me to do is to find out what happened,” Ross said.
In court on Friday, Cook County Circuit Judge Ronald Davis entered an order that requires Chicago and Niles officials to preserve 911 tapes and other evidence in the case. Lawyers for all sides had agreed to the order.
Niles officials remain confident their ambulance crew acted properly, said Jay Judge, attorney for the village.
“We were never lost,” Judge said Friday. “We went exactly where we were told to go.”
A Niles ambulance took Schieber to a hospital after he collapsed during the heat-shortened race on Oct. 7.
Ambulances from numerous suburbs responded to calls for help after hundreds of runners took ill from the unseasonably hot weather.
Cook County medical officials ruled Schieber, a police officer, died of a heart condition known as mitral valve prolapse after collapsing.
