In a federal court civil trial beginning this week, a family is blaming their 23-year-old son's death on an Arizona paramedic's decision to inject him with ketamine.
Ketamine, which is a powerful sedative, has been linked to several police in-custody deaths after paramedics on scene inject the drug into a person acting erratically.
Related: Tucson wrongful death lawsuit questions ketamine usage
David Cutler, a North Carolina man who was visiting Tucson, died in 2017. His family's lawsuit claims Rural Metro Fire and the paramedic who administered the ketamine were grossly negligent in their medical response and care.
"We are doing this in honor of our son David; we are doing it for us, and we are doing it so this does not happen to somebody else," said Renee Cutler, David's mom.
On June 5, 2017, David was driving a Jeep and hit a tree while off-roading, the vehicle caught fire.
Rural Metro firefighters doused the flames, but saw no sign of David.
A person who lived in the area later spotted David on a hilltop two to three hours later.
He was naked and screaming.
Pima County deputies arrived, David was handcuffed and his feet were restrained.
"He's still delusional and combative with us," one deputy is heard saying on a cellphone video recorded on the scene.
According to court records, one of the deputies called for the Rural Metro Fire to send paramedics, saying "maybe they can give him something".
The first paramedic to arrive injected David with ketamine.
In court Tuesday, a lawyer for the paramedic said he believed David was exhibiting signs of "excited delirium" and using ketamine was an "appropriate and right choice" to prepare him to be moved off the hilltop.
The medical examiner later found David Cutler died of hyperthermia, which is overheating, with LSD contributing. He did not mention ketamine as a factor.
In court, a lawyer for the Cutler family said David had been lost in the desert for hours in June and was exhibiting signs of heat stroke. The plaintiffs claim the paramedic and fire department is grossly negligent for failing to "treat the heat' first and for not having enough support equipment on the hilltop to respond if the sedative depressed David's breathing.
David's dad, Robert Cutler said the paramedic got "500 milligrams in the syringe and went up without any evaluation and injected David with too much ketamine for his weight."
David died a short time later.
"And he died a horrible death," Renee Cutler said. "He suffered, and I just wish there was someone there who would have helped him."
The Cutlers said David's case is similar to the Elijah McClain case. McClain died in a Denver suburb in 2019 after he had been restrained by police and injected with ketamine by a paramedic.
McClain's family received a $15 million settlement in their lawsuit.
The defense for Rural Metro and the Arizona paramedic said is David is partly responsible for his medical emergency because he had taken LSD.
The Cutler's civil trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
