Denver firefighters suspended for declaring living woman dead after they found her in bed

Two Denver firefighters received suspensions and demotions after they declared a woman dead after a wellness check, only to realize she was still alive.

The incident dates back to June 24, when firefighter Marshall Henry was sent on a welfare check to a woman who hadn’t been heard from in five days to assist the city’s police department. 

One police officer went to check on the woman and said she had blue-purple discoloration of her skin, fluid leaking from her body, and smelled like she was decomposing.

Denver Fire Lieutenant Patrick Lopez told his crew members not to bother going in because she was ‘obviously dead’ and asked them to remain outside.

Lopez told Henry – despite neither having actually checked on the woman themselves – to call the city’s health services to get a pronouncement of death from a doctor. 

The doctor gave them the pronouncement based on Henry’s description of the woman’s condition as ‘in an advanced state of death’ and answered the doctor’s questions in a way that suggested he had assessed her when he had not. 

When a police officer went back inside to look for weapons in the woman’s home, he noticed her moving and called both fire and EMS to return and take the woman to the hospital, the Denver Gazette said. 

Henry admitted to his mistake and both he and Lopez informed their supervisors, while a police officer denied having told the fire crew not to go inside the house.  

An investigation determined it was ‘more likely than not’ that Lopez lied to supervisors to try and blame the police officer.  

Lopez has since been demoted from lieutenant and been given a suspension without pay, while Henry was suspended but not demoted.  

Both have served out the suspensions and returned to work, as they had no prior violations on record.

The current condition of the woman is unclear.