Left inset: Ronald Shuck. Right inset: The rolling office chair that Phoenix firefighters allegedly used to try and carry Ronald Shuck. Background: The staircase that Phoenix firefighters allegedly tried to carry Ronald Shuck down before dropping him (KPNX/YouTube).
Arizona firefighters dropped a 76-year-old man on his head and back while carrying him in a “cheap roller chair” with no armrests instead of a gurney down a small flight of stairs, causing severe injuries that led to him being in a vegetative state — and his eventual death, the man”s family says.
The city of Phoenix agreed to pay a $605,000 settlement last week to Ronald Shuck’s wife after she filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2024, accusing the Phoenix Fire Department of employing firefighters who were “improperly trained and were grossly negligent” in the care provided to Shuck in January 2024 while responding to a 911 call she placed.
Online records show that the Phoenix City Council voted unanimously to approve the settlement during a July 1 meeting.
“On or about January 5, 2024, Ronald Shuck, decedent, found himself unable to stand up from the toilet,” his wife’s legal complaint said. “City of Phoenix firefighters arrived at his residence to provide aid to Ronald and placed him into a desk chair with rollers to check his vitals. After assessment, firefighters recommended that Ronald be taken to the hospital by ambulance for a complete evaluation.”
Once the ambulance arrived, four of the firefighters allegedly attempted to use the desk chair to lift Shuck “up from his porch” and “walk down the four steps at the entry/exit of the Shuck’s trailer home,” the complaint said.
Shuck was facing backward when the firefighters allegedly dropped him as they proceeded down the steps. This caused Shuck to “fall out of the chair backwards hitting the concrete stairs, cement, and then the ground with his head and upper back,” according to the complaint. His wife allegedly saw everything unfold as Shuck broke his back and neck.
“Ronald immediately complained of intense head pain and back pain,” the document alleged. “The City of Phoenix Firefighters failed to provide Ronald Shuck with a safe transfer. The firefighters’ actions were grossly negligent.”
After allegedly dropping Shuck, the firefighters transported him to the hospital where he was “diagnosed with injuries caused by the drop,” per the complaint. “As a result of the defendants’ negligence, Ronald Shuck died,” the document said.
“He was unable to walk and should have been carried out to the ambulance on a gurney and/or proper transport device with restraints and straps,” the complaint concluded. “The defendants and each of them, recklessly created an unsafe condition. The defendants knew or should have known that they created or allowed to exist a hazardous and dangerous situation in which a member of the general public could be injured.”
Shuck’s son, Ryan Shuck, told local NBC affiliate KPNX in February 2024 that his father was “not a small person,” so he doesn’t understand why the firefighters would “choose” to use a “cheap roller chair with no armrests” instead of a gurney. Ronald Shuck died on Jan. 23, 2024.
“Someone should suffer the consequences for what they did,” he said. “He could no longer move or talk, or eat or drink. Watching him take his last breath was probably the hardest moment of my life.”
The city of Phoenix did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment Monday.
