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Transcript: Fire Rescue Officials On Anna Nicole Smith’s Death (MP3)

POSTED: 5:45 pm EST February 8, 2007
UPDATED: 5:58 pm EST February 8, 2007

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This is the transcript of an exclusive telephone conversation between NBC 6 reporter Willard Shepard and the Fire Rescue team that responded to Anna Nicole’s room on Thursday afternoon.

Willard Shepard: What can you tell us about what transpired this afternoon at the Hard Rock facility?

Hollywood Fire Rescue Spokesman Matthew Phillips: Hollywood Fire Rescue received a phone call shortly after 2 o’clock to respond to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino at the Seminole Indian Reservation in Hollywood, Fla. Upon arrival, our rescue crews were escorted to a guest room where they found an unresponsive female subject.

Phillips: At that time she was not breathing. We began our standard protocol of CPR and everything that goes with it. We then transported the female to Hollywood Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla.

Willard Shepard: Was she still alive at the time she left the hotel?

Phillips: She was not breathing and she was not responsive when our rescue crews arrived at the hotel.

Shepard: Were the people who were with her able to give you any information about what transpired before she became unresponsive to them?

Phillips: I have received no information as far as any bystanders or whatever statements they were able to give to our rescue crews.

Shepard: Was she in the room alone?

Phillips: She was found by our rescue crew alone in the room and we were notified by her personal bodyguard.

Shepard: In a situation like this, give us some idea of what paramedics would have done when they arrived on the scene to assist her.

Phillips turns the phone over to Captain Fitzgerald who was in the room while paramedics were working on Anna Nicole Smith.

Captain Fitzgerald: Seminole rescue was already in the room with a lot of security ... also her bodyguard and her husband Howard Stern was on scene. He was concerned and was giving us her medical history.

Shepard: What was the situation with her when you arrived in the room?

Fitzgerald: Seminole rescue was attempting CPR. Hollywood rescue #74 stepped in and took over and inubated the patient ... that means put a tube down her throat. We started an IV, we pushed all medications, we took EKGs, we attempted to put in an external pacemaker for the heart, but we couldn’t get her heart beating.

Shepard: Was she alive when you arrived?

Fitzgerald: No. She was unconscious and not breathing.

Shepard: What did the family member and bodyguard tell you?

Fitzgerald: He put her on the floor and started CPR and called for help.

Shepard: What would be a standard procedure in a case like this?

Fitzgerald: We start with CPR, then we inubate and put a tube into the lungs so we can control the airway, we start in IV. There are certain medications we push automatically. There’s a whole list of medications and order that we do as far as the protocols go.

Shepard: Did she respond at all to anything you tried to do to help her?

Fitzgerald: No, not that I saw.

Shepard: And the family members, was there anything that they said to you about what transpired during the course of the morning or early afternoon that would have given you any indication that she could have experienced this kind of trauma?

Fitzgerald: No, we didn’t get any information. As far as we know she was left in the room and when they came back to the room she was not breathing.

Shepard: Is there anything else that you can add about what transpired in terms of your call and the time that you were there with her before she was transported to the hospital?

Fitzgerald: The inter-agencies worked real well together. Hollywood Fire Rescue and Seminole Rescue were on scene. Seminole security for the Hard Rock cleared the hallways to transport her downstairs and get her in the truck. All the agencies worked together as well as we could have given the circumstances. There was just no way of knowing how long she’d been down before she was discovered, which could make all the difference in the world. If you witness somebody pass out you can initiate care immediately. But if somebody passes out and it’s not witnessed, they can be there for 20 minutes or so before they’re found, it makes it a much more difficult scenario to work our protocols and be successful.

Shepard: So you don’t have any idea how long she could have been unconscious before you guys arrived.

Fitzgerald: No, we never did get that information.

Shepard: And it’s your belief that she was already deceased when you arrived on the scene.

Fitzgerald: That’s what it appeared.

So it appears that folks who administered the atropine had no idea how long she’d been dead. I mean she obviously hadn’t been there for days but it is misleading for perper to shift the determination of time of death to the first responders who administrated the atropine - making us believe that the responders would not have pushed the atropine if there was no hope for it to work because she had been dead too long. If the CPR didn’t pump the atropine - I don’t know how it got into the blood - cuz according to this guy her heart never started.