Inspection Detail

Inspection: 315098434 - Advocate Condell Medical Center

Inspection Information - Office: Chicago North Area Office

Investigation Summary

On November 16, 2010, Employee #1 was working alone in the loading dock room. He was conducting his regularly assigned duties, which included obtaining a 98 gallon recycling bin from a storage room located at the north end of the loading dock room adjacent to the construction of a new laboratory for a medical center. There was no construction work being conducted, when Employee #1 retrieved the recycling bin. However, there were approximately 32 sheets of 4 ft by 10 ft drywall (weighing about 200 pounds each) against the west wall of the loading dock room with an additional seven sheets of the drywall material along the west wall stored on a Perry Drywall Cart. The Environmental Service Department Supervisor found Employee #1 unconscious and trapped between several sheets of drywall and the east wall of the loading dock room. Employee #1 was transported to a medical center, but he was pronounced dead due to asphyxiation. An investigation revealed that the drywall sheets were positioned in a way that would have prevented Employee #1 from opening a recycling bin storage room door wide enough to remove a recycling bin from the room. Because the drywall sheets that pinned him were located several feet from where they were originally positioned, which was along the west wall of the same room, Employee #1 must have become trapped while trying to move the drywall to open the storage room door wide enough for retrieving a recycling bin.

Keywords: UNCONSCIOUSNESS, ASPHYXIATED, PINNED, CAUGHT BETWEEN