A man in Hawaii is suing the state after he suffered a heart attack following a false missile alert that was sent to residents in January. James Sean Shields said that when he and his girlfriend, Brenda Reichel, received the alert they believed that their lives were going to end, so they decided to spend their final moments on the beach.
"Both plaintiffs believed this message to be true and were extremely frightened and thought they were going to die," the lawsuit said.
When they arrived at the beach, they started calling friends and family to say goodbye. That's when Shields started noticing a "severe and painful burning in his chest area" and they drove to a nearby hospital, where he was rushed into emergency surgery after suffering a heart attack.
“In my opinion, the warning there was an imminent missile attack about to hit Hawaii was a substantial contributing factor in causing the heart attack and cardiac arrest,” cardiologist John MacGregor said in the lawsuit. “Mr. Shields had no known cardiac disease. Within 15 minutes of learning of the impending missile attack, Mr. Shields had developed symptoms of an acute myocardial infraction. Shortly after that, he experienced a cardiac arrest.”
The lawsuit names state of Hawaii, Vern T. Miyagi, the former administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, along with 10 unnamed employees, 10 John Does, and 10 Doe entities as defendants.
"We're going to reserve any comment until we have had a chance to review the claims," Richard Rapoza, a spokesman for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Photo: Getty Images