Family of Eagles fan who died after heart attack at the Linc settles wrongful death lawsuit
It took an “unreasonably long period of time” for EMS to respond, lawyers alleged.
The family of an Eagles fan who died after suffering a heart attack at Lincoln Financial Field has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit with the team, stadium, and its emergency medical services provider.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed in a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas document filed last week, days before the suit brought by the family of Marco Bianchi was set to go to trial.
Bianchi, 38, suffered a heart attack in the stands while attending an Eagles game in September 2019. Lawyers representing Bianchi’s brother, Alex Bianchi, filed the lawsuit the next year, claiming that “undermanned and ill-equipped stadium personnel” contributed to the Delaware native’s death.
Barrett DeAngelo, the law firm representing the Bianchi family, sought more than $50,000 in damages. A Barrett DeAngelo attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Attorneys representing the Eagles, Lincoln Financial Field, and EMS provider National Event Services, also did not respond. A spokesperson for the Eagles organization declined to comment.
A complaint filed on behalf of the Bianchi family detailed the frantic moments that followed his heart attack as the Eagles faced off against the Detroit Lions.
Bianchi’s attorneys alleged that it took an “unreasonably long period of time” for the stadium’s staff and medical personnel to arrive after Bianchi began to suffer a heart attack in Section 131, near the north end zone.
Spectators attempted CPR measures until EMS arrived. But Bianchi’s attorneys alleged that when EMS did arrive, they were “not properly equipped” with the defibrillator needed to intervene.
Bianchi was taken to the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital by ambulance, where he was pronounced dead.
Alex Bianchi, a physician, was seated in a different area and rushed to his brother’s section when he learned of the attack, wanting to perform lifesaving measures on his brother. But event staff wouldn’t let him enter Marco Bianchi’s section, the lawsuit said.
Alex Bianchi was instead “forced to witness his brother undergo CPRs attempts by spectators and the ill-equipped response by the stadium personnel that left his brother in dire condition,” according to the complaint.
Bianchi’s attorneys also included posts from a Reddit thread that detailed accounts from spectators who said they witnessed the response to the heart attack.
One person who said they were seated in a nearby section wrote that “it felt like forever before any of the EMTs arrived and when they did they did not have what they needed.”
“YES! both my husband and I thought it took forever for the EMTs to arrive,” wrote another user.
Bianchi was a resident of Pine Creek, Del., and worked as a banking analyst for JP Morgan Chase, according to his obituary.
His death came one month before the death of Eagles fan Joseph Nocero, who also died after suffering a heart attack at Lincoln Financial Field in 2019.
Nocero’s family filed a similar wrongful death lawsuit in Common Pleas court in 2020, claiming it took at least half an hour for National Event Service’s medical personnel to arrive to Nocero’s seat in Section 236.
The suit also alleged that an in-house physician failed to assist Nocero during the hour he was at the stadium before being taken to the hospital.
The Nocero family settled with the emergency service provider in March for an undisclosed sum.
When asked about the suit in 2020, a spokesperson for the Eagles said the team places “a priority on the safety of our fans, but do not discuss that type of information publicly.”