By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A 22-year-old man suffering a medical episode in his East Harlem apartment died amid a lengthy delay getting him to a local hospital, police said Monday.
Two calls from police for an ambulance were not answered, the NYPD said, with officers waiting 41 minutes before finally rushing the victim on their own to Harlem Hospital, where he died.
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Two minutes later, an ambulance finally arrived at the apartment building, the FDNY said. It wasn’t clear why the delays occurred.
At 5:13 p.m. Saturday, a 911 caller said a man who might have overdosed and appeared to be emotionally disturbed needed help.
When officers got to the victim’s apartment on E. 116th St. near Lexington Ave. in East Harlem, he was having trouble breathing and acting erratically, police said. His roommate was also there.
At 5:44 p.m., cops called for an ambulance but FDNY medics didn’t show up so officers called again at 6:05 p.m., urging the dispatcher “rush the bus,” NYPD officials said.
At 6:25 p.m., with no ambulance in sight, the cops gave up and put the man in their patrol car, driving him to the hospital themselves, police said.
They got him to the hospital at 6:29 p.m., police said. He died at 6:56 p.m.
The man, whose name was not immediately released, has no arrest history and no documented history of drug use, a police source said.
The NYPD Force Investigation Division is reviewing what happened because of the length of time police spent with the man. The NYPD could not say why the officers didn’t take the man to the hospital sooner.
The FDNY did not answer questions about why the ambulance was delayed.
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