A man with no known address was found unresponsive Wednesday morning in Waycross and later pronounced dead at the scene, Ware County Coroner David Jordan said.
Jordan said Fabian Mills, 52, died of natural causes January 15 in the area of Ossie Davis Drive and McDonald Street. Jordan pronounced Mills dead at 7:57 a.m., and said complications from pneumonia were likely a contributing factor.
He said Mills received resusitative efforts from a woman who found the man lying on the ground about 7:15 a.m., and also a Waycross police officer before Ware County EMS arrived to begin treatment. Jordan said Mills, who was wheelchairbound, had been a hospital patient as recently as January 13.
“He still had a (patient) bracelet on and some (heart) lead strips,” Jordan said.
The coroner said he contacted the medical examiner’s office with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) about the death. Jordan said he also sent Mills’ medical records, which he found folded in a pocket of the deceased’s clothing, to the medical examiner’s office for inspection.
“I conferred with them and there was nothing suspicious (with the death) other than the fact he was outside,” Jordan said.
Heather Hanson was taking her four-year-old daughter, MacKenzy, to Headstart shortly after 7 a.m., when she saw a man lying on his side on the ground with a wheelchair at his side. Hanson, a certified medical assistant (CMA) at the Jacobs Clinic, first rolled down her window near Mills and yelled to him.
“When I didn’t get an answer, something just didn’t feel right,” Hanson said. “I put on my hazard lights and stopped.”
At the time Hanson stopped, she had her fiancé, Branden Taylor, on speaker phone. She related what she’d encountered and asked Taylor, a sergeant with the Ware County Sheriff’s Office to stay on the line while she checked out Mills, who was lying on the sidewalk near a convenience store and vehicle body shop.
At his side, Hanson again called out to Mills and got no response. She checked for a pulse in his wrist and saw the hospital bracelet with his name.
Getting no pulse or seeing any breathing, she returned to her truck to relate the situation, and Taylor called for emergency aid at the location.
WPD Capt. Paul Crawford said Officer Christopher Crapse responded to the call at 7:19 a.m. When Crapse reached the scene, he and Hanson alternated giving Mills CPR, “four or five minutes,” Hanson said, until the arrival of EMS and firefighters, who also couldn’t revive the man.
Hanson said she’d been certified in resusitation efforts for seven years, but had never used it in a potential life-saving situation.
“You hope you never have to,” she said.
Jordan said neighborhood residents informed law enforcement Mills was usually seen around one of the abandoned homes in the area.
“People tried to help him as much as they could,” said Jordan, who said he’d occasionally seen Mills while traveling through the area. “They gave him food, and he was someone they looked out for.”
Jordan stated Mills was fully clothed when he died, wearing jogging pants, an undershirt and two other shirts as well as a jacket. He said a burn barrel also was nearby.
Hanson wondered if help had arrived sooner if the outcome might have been different. She travels the route daily and said traffic is fairly heavy at that time of the morning.
“He wasn’t hidden from sight,” she said. “All it would’ve taken was a glance (to see him). Someone could’ve at least called to say a person was down and be anonymous. Just call. It’s very sad.”
