'No one's really safe' | Woman says her father died while waiting for help from 911 call
Diana Barajas wants answers. She wants to know why her dad, Jorge Martin Olguín Cruz, died after leaving the home they shared for an afternoon walk.
Diana Barajas stands ten feet from a planter in front of a City Heights apartment complex on 44th Street.
That planter marks the spot where Barajas' father died as he waited nearly an hour for police and paramedics to respond to multiple calls the residents of the apartment complex said they made.
Barajas wants answers. She wants to know why her dad, Jorge Martin Olguín Cruz, died after leaving the home they shared for an afternoon walk.
Barajas wants to know what happened during that walk and, more importantly, why it took so long for help to arrive. She wants to hold those accountable for her father, a man she considered her best friend, to die a painful and lonely death.
In January, Barajas filed a legal claim against the city of San Diego to get those answers.
"I lost my father. I am so sad. I am hopeless," says Barajas outside of the City Heights apartment building. "I feel like no one was able to help me. I lost my best friend. He was always there with me. And not just me but my sister too. You know, we lost someone really important in our lives."
But finding those answers will take time and must be facilitated by a judge.
On April 26, the city of San Diego denied Barajas's legal claim, meaning that Barajas must now sue the city to find out why her dad died and why he spent the final minutes of his life in agony.
A Summer Stroll Turns Deadly September 6, 2022
Diana Barajas says her father left their apartment on a hot summer afternoon on September 6, 2022, to go for a walk.
It was the last she ever heard from him. After not returning from the walk, Barajas tells CBS 8 that she began to search for her father. She continued to do so for the next four days until the Medical Examiner's office called her to come and verify her dad's body.
That is when Barajas says she learned where he died and went to the apartment complex. She found neighbors and spoke to some of the people who called for help that day.
"He was asking for help. A lot of people didn't know who he was. People here in the apartments came and helped my father out, about three or four people tried to help him," said Barajas.
CBS 8 obtained documents that show at least two calls were made that afternoon from the apartment complex.
The 911 Calls Was the call misclassified?
At 3:55 pm on September 6th, a person living at 4029 44th Street, called 9-1-1.
According to records obtained by CBS 8, the call was classified as a mental health call, also known as a 5150 call and not a medical emergency.
The call is shown as listed as a "Priority Two" call, which, according to San Diego Police Department "involves less serious crimes in which there is no threat to life."
Priority two calls, according to the department, require units to be dispatched "as quickly as possible."
However, Barajas, as well as witnesses, say police or fire units did not respond as quickly as possible, in fact, there's no record of them responding at all after that initial call.
Approximately 45 minutes later, as Mr.Olguín Cruz suffered in the heat, fire and dispatch received another call, this time for a report of a "male laying on the ground."
Two minutes later, the person calling told dispatchers that the man was breathing but was not responsive.
An ambulance was dispatched and arrived within six minutes.
At 4:52 pm, the Fire Department call log states that Mr. Olguin Cruz was pronounced dead.
For Diana Barajas, the nearly one hour that elapsed since the first call was made was a matter of life or death for her father.
"He would not, he would not have died, he would have at least had some type of medical treatment. He probably would have been in the hospital recuperating, or some type of medical attention could have been given to help him."
Vanessa Peña represents Barajas. Peña says the city is responsible for not administering aid sooner. She says that the Medical Examiner has indicated that preliminary tests showed that drugs and alcohol did not factor into Mr. Olguin Cruz's death, making his death even more preventable.
"My client just wants answers as to why her dad was treated differently because if I was to call 911, I would expect I would get an ambulance within 10-to-15 minutes. I would never expect over an hour. My client is very upset and wants answers for her dad," said Peña.
Barajas agrees that there is more to the story. She feels that the location, the fact that her dad did not have identification on him, and that he was mentally unstable from the medical emergency, means he was considered a low-priority call.
"I felt like no one's really safe. Especially knowing that my father was there and just left like that. And, because he had no identification, they thought he was a homeless person. It shouldn't be because they can find a status of who you are, what you are or how you're dressed. You know, that should never be the issue. Everyone should have access to help," said Barajas.
CBS8 reached out to all parties involved.
A City spokesperson said they can't comment on pending litigation, though their Risk Management Department did send Barajas a letter denying her initial claim.
We are still waiting to hear from San Diego Police, whose dispatch center took the initial call.
Falck, who provided the ambulance that day, released a statement to CBS8 saying,
“While Falck Mobile Health cannot comment on this specific matter because of privacy laws, we can confirm that advanced life support response times in the general vicinity and hour in question on September 6, 2022, did not exceed 6 minutes, 1 second. Falck is committed to providing safe, reliable, and compassionate emergency response and healthcare to all San Diegans.”