GRIMEY! Dying Man Robbed in Philadelphia ER
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 5:02 am
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A school counselor suffering an apparent heart attack died in a Philadelphia emergency room after waiting nearly 80 minutes for help — and a trio of homeless drug addicts nearby stole his watch instead of seeking aid, police said.
Joaquin Rivera, 63, died before seeing a triage nurse at Atria Health’s Frankford Campus over the weekend, police said.
Rivera, a musician and activist in the city’s Latino community, had spent more than 30 years working as a bilingual counselor at an inner-city high school.
“We’re all destroyed. A guy like that, for him to leave us the way that he did — and with what happened to him — everybody’s destroyed,” said Jesse Bermudez, a friend and fellow musician.
Rivera had walked to the Northeast Philadelphia hospital late Saturday from his home a few blocks away after pain started shooting down his right side. He registered at 10:45 p.m. and took a seat, chatting for about 20 minutes with two men and a woman nearby.
Based on witness accounts, police believe Rivera passed out about an hour later. Security video then shows one of the men steal his watch and briefly pass it to the other. He was not found to be dead until 12:04 AM. Police arrested one of the suspects, 44-year-old Richard Alten, at the hospital and are searching for the others.
