Airport supervisor secretly emailed about Dziekanski, inquiry hears
A Vancouver airport emergency-response supervisor on duty the night Robert Dziekanski died secretly knew about the situation even though his team had not been deployed, a public inquiry into the Polish immigrant's death heard Wednesday.
Andrew Caldwell, supervisor for the airport's first responders, testified Wednesday that he was aware of the unfolding medical emergency in the international arrivals lounge because a female friend in the airport operations centre was secretly emailing him every minute with an update.
The emails were secret because the man who should have alerted Caldwell and his medical responders had decided not to call in the Emergency Response Services, or ERS, the inquiry heard.
In the emails, Caldwell mentions he's being kept in the dark about the Code 3 emergency situation and talks about how his team will shoulder the blame for what's happening.
Caldwell testified that even though he knew his team members could help Dziekanski, they couldn't go to the scene unless they were dispatched.
Co-ordinator expresses regret
Robert Ginter, the airport's response co-ordinator, expressed regret in his testimony Wednesday for his decision to hold back the ERS the night Dziekanski died.
Dziekanski died in the morning hours of Oct. 14, 2007, shortly after he was shocked up to five times by a Taser. He had become agitated and was throwing furniture in the airport's international arrivals lounge, although when the four Mounties who were deployed to deal with him arrived at the scene, he had calmed considerably, the inquiry has heard.
Ginter testified Tuesday that he didn't deploy the airport's medical responders to tend to an inert Dziekanski because they might have been needed in the event of some other emergency. He also said he was satisfied that city firefighters who had been dispatched would arrive at the scene as quickly as the airport's own medical personnel.
But on Wednesday, Ginter told the inquiry he had second thoughts when he learned the Polish man was unconscious after being jolted with the stun gun.
"You realized that Mr. Dziekanski was unconscious. What was your first thought?" the airport's lawyer, Dwight Stewart, asked Ginter.
"Holy sh--," Ginter replied. "Because of the call I made previously about not having ERS respond."
When ambulance dispatchers declared Dziekanski's condition a Code 3 medical emergency, Ginter knew there was a standing order to summon the airport's own firefighters to the scene, the inquiry heard. But he decided against it.
By the time firefighters from the municipality of Richmond reached Dziekanski, he wasn't breathing and had no pulse. The fire captain on duty has told the inquiry he believed Dziekanski was already dead.
Ginter testified Wednesday that the decision he made still bothers him, but he never called it a mistake.