The Region - News from June 9, 1986

Two Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics who pronounced a Sylmar man dead last month--only to have a coroner’s investigator revive him--were returned to duty after Fire Chief Donald Manning ruled they they had followed correct procedures. A department report said Richard Aceves and James C. Smith discovered no signs of life when they found Kenneth M. Smith, 63, slumped over a work bench in his tool shed on May 15. But when coroner’s investigator Phillip Campbell arrived to remove the body, he saw Smith twitch, pulled a plug of chewing tobacco from his mouth and helped restore his breathing. The report concluded that a mixture of alcohol and a prescription drug caused Smith, who has since recovered, to lapse into severe hypothermia.