art by Matt Groening: Clancy Wiggum/The Simpsons
Cop Falls, Breaks Knee During Rescue of Drowning Baby
Cop Sues Brain-Damaged Baby's Family for Water on Floor
Really... You read that right.
A cop who went to help rescue a drowning one-year, slipped in a puddle made while dragging the nearly-dead child from the pool.
She blames the family of the brain-damaged breathing-through-a-tube kid for not making their pool baby-proof, thus leading to the chain of events where she fell.
Orlando SentinelIn my entire career as a paramedic, I never heard anything like this.
In January, 1-year-old Joey Cosmillo wandered into the backyard and fell into the family pool. When his mother hauled him out, he wasn't breathing. Rescuers were able to bring him back to life, but he suffered severe brain damage and cannot walk, talk or even swallow.
Now, his family faces another burden: One of the rescuers, Casselberry police Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn, is suing, alleging the family left a puddle of water on the floor that afternoon, causing her to slip and fall.
The boy's grandparents, named in the suit, are mystified and angry.
"The loss we've suffered, and she's seeking money?" said Richard Cosmillo, 69, the boy's grandfather. "Of course there's going to be water in the house. He was sopping wet when we brought him in."
Eichhorn last week sued Richard Cosmillo; his wife, Maggie Cosmillo; and the boy's mother, Angela Cosmillo, accusing them of negligence. They were careless, according to the suit, and allowed the home they shared to become unsafe.
As a consequence, Eichhorn broke her knee, something that kept her off the job for two months, according to police Chief John Pavlis.
The baby's mother was the only one home Jan. 9, when the boy slipped out of the house and wound up in the pool, according to a police report.
She plunged in and dragged him out, carrying him inside, down a hallway and into a bedroom. She also called 911.
Eichhorn arrived a few minutes later. As she stepped into the room where rescuers were working on the boy, she slipped and went down on one knee, then stood back up, according to Richard Cosmillo.
Eichhorn, a 12-year department veteran, would not discuss the suit. Her attorney said those benefits, paid by the city's workers' compensation carrier, were not enough. The suit seeks an unspecified amount of money.
Eichhorn, he said, is a victim. Her knee aches, and she will likely develop arthritis.
If the Cosmillos had made their pool baby-proof, police would not have been called to the scene, there would have been no water on the floor, and Eichhorn would not have hurt herself, he said.
"It's a situation where the Cosmillos have caused these problems, brought them on themselves, then tried to play the victim," he said.
What a loser.
What part of "to protect and to serve" doesn't she understand?
Hopefully this gets tossed on public policy grounds by the courts. Otherwise people could end up afraid to dial 911 if it exposes them to lawsuits from the cops, firefighters and medics responding. Paging Professor Volokh & the Volokh Conspiracy. *waves hello to youngest conspirator Madeline Joyce Rorick Adler*
I can't get over what an absolute ass this cop is.
She wouldn't dare try this bullshit in New York City. Someone would break her other knee. And in Oakland, someone would just cap her.
|