Claim in man’s death rejected by Merced County supervisors

A Los Banos family filed a $3 million claim against Merced County alleging Riggs Ambulance Service is to blame for the death of a 30-year-old family member.

The claim was rejected by the Board of Supervisors last week. The family now has six months to file a lawsuit. The family declined comment when reached on Friday.

According to the claim the family says Ryan Kersthold died Aug. 26, 2014, after Riggs personnel “did not perform appropriate CPR” and delayed transporting him to the hospital. The family claims the responders told them Kersthold had no pulse, but a heartbeat was detected at the hospital.

The family demanded $3 million from the county, including $450,000 in lost wages from Kersthold’s income, $2.1 million in attorney’s fees and an unspecified amount for medical treatment, pain and suffering.

Merced County’s chief civil litigator, Roger Matzkind, said the county rejected the family’s claim because it’s not a responsible party to the incident.

“We had nothing to do with it. Riggs is not part of the county,” Matzkind said Friday. “It’s just an ambulance company – they’re not us. If the family thinks there was something wrong with the service provided by the ambulance company, then the remedy would be to go after the ambulance company and they would respond.”

Merced County’s public health department oversees the 5-year contract it has with Riggs, Matzkind said, but it has nothing to do with specific incidents. The county monitors the ambulance provider’s response times, handles patient care complaints and ensures contract compliance.

“There are certain general regulatory things the county oversees, but it wouldn’t encompass any specific incident,” he said.

This isn’t the first death claim against Riggs Ambulance, which is now fully owned by the Nevada nonprofit Sierra Medical Services Alliance. A San Bernardino County woman last year claimed her husband died because of an “improper transport.” The family demanded $250,000 in damages, including lost wages, pain and suffering.

Ana Centeno, 66, of Rialto, claimed the ambulance company failed to properly transport her husband, Oscar Armando Centeno, on July 2, 2013. The 58-year-old man died the next day, according to the claim. Centeno also said Riggs failed to correctly diagnose her husband’s medical condition and did not provide the proper treatment, which resulted in his death.

The county denied Centeno’s claim on Feb. 4, 2014, according to county documents. She had six months to file a lawsuit but did not. The family could not be reached for comment Friday.

Riggs officials confirmed Centeno did not file any lawsuits against the 67-year-old ambulance company.

Steve Melander, former Riggs general manager and now the vice president of SEMSA’s Central California region, referred further questions to Mike Williams, the SEMSA vice president and chief operating officer.

Williams could not be reached for comment Friday.

This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 11:38 PM with the headline "Claim in man’s death rejected by Merced County supervisors."