Home / Crime and Justice / D.C. Mother Fights for 911 Audio of Son's Death
D.C. Mother Fights for 911 Audio of Son's Death
29 Jan
Summary
- Mother sues D.C. for 911 audio after son's cardiac arrest.
- 911 call miscategorized, delaying advanced life support.
- D.C. 911 agency cites privacy for denying audio release.
Stephanie Clemans is pursuing legal action against Washington D.C. to access the 911 audio recording from the day her son, William Ostertag, suffered a fatal cardiac arrest. Ostertag collapsed in his apartment gym on November 2024, and records indicate an eight-minute delay in dispatching advanced life support units, despite a fire station being nearby.
The 911 call-taker initially classified the emergency as a seizure, a less urgent category than cardiac arrest. This miscategorization led to an initial dispatch of an ambulance lacking advanced equipment. Approximately 7½ minutes passed before the situation was upgraded, and paramedics from the adjacent station were alerted.
These paramedics arrived within a minute and successfully restarted Ostertag's heart twice. However, his brain had suffered irreversible damage due to oxygen deprivation. He died a week and a half later. Clemans seeks the audio to understand the delay, arguing that D.C.'s policy of withholding such recordings infringes on public accountability.
