Left inset: Ronald Shuck. Right inset: The rolling office chair Phoenix firefighters allegedly used while attempting to carry Shuck. Background: The staircase firefighters allegedly tried to navigate before Shuck was dropped (KPNX/YouTube).
The family of a 76-year-old Arizona man says Phoenix firefighters caused catastrophic injuries when they attempted to move him down a short set of stairs in a “cheap roller chair” without armrests rather than using a gurney, allegedly dropping him onto his head and back. Ronald Shuck later entered a vegetative state and eventually died, according to his family.
Last week, the city of Phoenix agreed to pay $605,000 to Shuck’s wife to resolve a wrongful death lawsuit she filed in 2024. The complaint accused the Phoenix Fire Department of having firefighters who were “improperly trained and were grossly negligent” while responding to a 911 call placed for Shuck in January 2024.
Phoenix City Council records show the settlement was approved unanimously during a July 1 meeting.
According to the legal complaint, the incident began on or about Jan. 5, 2024, when Shuck was unable to get up from the toilet at his home. Firefighters arrived to assist him and placed him in a rolling desk chair to check his vital signs. After evaluating him, they advised that he should be taken by ambulance to a hospital for a full medical assessment, the complaint said.
When the ambulance arrived, four firefighters allegedly chose to use the same desk chair to move Shuck from the porch area and down the four steps at the entrance of the Shucks’ trailer home, according to the filing.
Shuck was facing backward as they attempted to carry him down the stairs, the complaint alleged. During the move, firefighters dropped him, causing him to fall out of the chair and strike the concrete steps, cement and ground with his head and upper back. His wife allegedly witnessed the fall, which the lawsuit says resulted in fractures to his neck and back.
“Ronald immediately complained of intense head pain and back pain,” the complaint stated. The lawsuit further alleged that Phoenix firefighters failed to safely transfer Shuck and characterized their actions as “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.
