The Proximate Cause of Joaquin Rivera’s Death
Joaquin Rivera - www.philly.com
Joaquin Rivera, 63, died while waiting to see a doctor in the emergency room at Aria Health’s Frankford Campus in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 28, 2009. Videotape clearly shows Rivera going into distress at 10:56 p.m. just 11 minutes after he signed in. At 11:45 p.m., nearly 50 minutes after Rivera stopped moving, hospital personnel noticed that he was dead. I extend my sympathies to Mr. Rivera’s family.
Mr. Rivera, who friends said had been close to retirement, worked as a bilingual counseling assistant at Olney High School and was a popular guitarist in the city’s Puerto Rican community.