Woman Falls From Ambulance, Dies At Hospital

According to a report from the , officers responded to a call from a resident on the 300 block of East Marshall Street early Saturday morning. The woman had called police to involve them in investigating the circumstances surrounding her mother's death.

Bonnie Wills told police her mother Dianne, who resided with her, complained of trouble breathing around 6 a.m. Saturday morning. Wills had called 911 and a paramedic and an EMT from Plymouth Community Ambulance responded to the scene. After speaking with her mother in the second floor of the home, the two men reportedly escorted the woman downstairs to a waiting stretcher. As the men were lifting the stretcher into the ambulance, Dianne Wills allegedly slumped to her side and fell from the stretcher, hitting her head on the pavement. Wills told police she witnessed her mother slumping over and had called to the men to alert them. Wills told police that her mother had not been secured to the stretcher with any straps.

According to the report, on arrival at , Wills was advised that her mother had passed away. Wills and her family called police because they were unsure if her death was a result of the respiratory distress or the fall from the stretcher.

Police spoke with a neighbor who reportedly had witnessed the entire scene and confirmed the story. Police were also approached by another family member of the deceased who showed officers a photo of the deceased woman's injuries from the fall. The photo reportedly shows "a large lump and bruising on [Wills'] forehead." The family member emailed the photo to police, who placed the photo into evidence

Autopsy records for the deceased were not made available to Norristown Patch, but Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Walter I. Hofman confirmed the woman's cause of death as hypertensive heart disease. According to Hofman, the woman's head injury "had nothing to do with her death."

Representatives from Plymouth Community Ambulance have not been available to comment.

The family has reportedly been in contact with a lawyer and Wills has spoken of plans to request a copy of the autopsy report from the coroner's office.

Norristown Patch will follow this story and update readers as information becomes available.