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911 records cited breathing problem for John Linder
Newly released emergency 911 records describe Rep. John Linder as suffering from “difficulty breathing” or “allergic reaction” May 15 after being helped outside a Capitol Hill bar and restaurant, although the Georgia congressman continued to assert that his problem was an injured knee.
District of Columbia officials, in compliance with open records laws, disclosed a recording of the emergency dispatch exchanges and a written chronology of the incident, which drew national press coverage last month.
Asked in an interview about the official account, the Republican congressman said, “This is a knee that was injured in February, and I re-injured by slipping on something” while dining with his grown son. He added, “It could have been allergic reaction or trouble breathing. All I know is that I was hurt badly. I was helped out of the place.”
Linder said he told a U.S. Capitol Police officer, who found him sitting outside of the restaurant/bar Bullfeathers, that he was waiting to regain the strength in his knee to walk home.
The official chronology cites the Capitol Police as reporting a code “02C02”—allergic reaction or difficulty breathing or swallowing—at 6:55 p.m. In recorded two-way radio exchanges, an ambulance driver cited the same condition when announcing he was “responding to 431 First St., SE,” which is next door to Bullfeathers.
Minutes later a voice from a fire engine, which was dispatched to the scene along with the ambulance, reported: “Per Capitol Police, the patient got up and walked away—refused treatment.”
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