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Man Has Heart Attack on Train, Dies Later

Aired July 31, 2002 - 14:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning to a tragic story now in Boston. A 61-year-old was riding on a commuter train yesterday when he suffered a heart attack. Instead of getting the man help, the train continued on to make two scheduled stops. The man died today.
Our Boston bureau chief, Bill Delaney, joins us now with more on this story -- Bill.

BILL DELANEY, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Kyra, it is a tragic story, this saga of what happened on an Amtrak-run Boston commuter train headed into Boston from a western suburb yesterday morning.

James Allen, 61 years old, died in the hospital today as a result of having a heart attack on that train yesterday. Now, the plots of all this is a bit complicated. Let's try to take you through it.

Mr. Allen got on the commuter train in the upscale western suburb of Boston Wellesley around 8:30 am. Soon after that, he had a heart attack on the train. He stopped breathing. Passengers came to his aid and immediately alerted conductors about the emergency situation. Passengers then absolutely astonished when the train, as it reached its next possible station, to bring the man off to get medical attention, let passengers on and off at the next station, and then continued on. It then went to another station. It let passengers on and off the train, and then continued on into the heart of Boston, Back Bay station where an ambulance and EMT -- emergency medical technicians were waiting for the train.

Now, roughly from the time Mr. Allen had the heart attack to the time the train reached Back Bay station in Boston would have been about 17 minutes, critical minutes for Mr. Allen. The plot does thicken, though, Kyra. Conductors -- the main conductor on the train has been suspended and conductors coming to his defense saying there is more to this than may meet the eye at first. Particularly, an assistant conductor named Susan Bergeron, who knew CPR, Susan Bergeron saying that throughout she and the other conductors did everything they could for the man, including performing CPR on him throughout.

Let's listen to Assistant Conductor Susan Bergeron.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN BERGERON, ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR: I mean, I have no problem with the decisions that the crew made on that train, and I am very resentful that people are trying to play Monday morning quarterback and second guess what we did, especially people that don't understand what is going on behind the scenes, and that the number one priority in everybody's mind was to save that man and help him. Everybody did their part, what they did best to try to help that man.

It took a long time to stabilize him. We lost him and brought him back several times. And the man was in a fragile condition, and the crew made their decision based on prior knowledge. We had a heart attack on there over a year ago. We waited 25 minutes out at one of those stations. It was Arbordale (ph) or West Newton for an ambulance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DELANEY: Passengers, nevertheless, absolutely horrified that the train made two stops, whether conductors were working on the man or not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLINE PEARSON, PASSENGER: I knew a guy who was two rows in front of him, and they said it was really disturbing. They said they couldn't get anyone really to stop the train, they said they could not get an ambulance.

DELANEY: Medical experts like our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta say critical moments were lost. A defibrillator can save a person's life in a heart attack situation like this, but it has to be applied really quickly. There was no defibrillator on the train. If they had been able to get one to the passenger earlier than the 17 minutes or so it took to get to the emergency medical technicians and ambulance in downtown Boston. It could have made a big difference -- back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Bill Delaney, live from Boston. Thanks, Bill.

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