A paramedic for the ambulance company killed a Pflugerville man and surrendered his certification. Three years later, David Rogers voted to keep the company.

On January 6, 2022 an Allegiance Mobile Health paramedic performed an unnecessary cricothyrotomy on 42-year-old John Samerigo of Pflugerville. The autopsy gave his cause of death as “improper emergency medical therapy, resulting in death.” The Texas Department of State Health Services investigated, moved to revoke the paramedic's certification, and he surrendered it in October 2023. All of this was reported in the Austin American-Statesman, KXAN and KVUE well before July 14, 2026 — the night David Rogers voted against ending the city's contract with that company.

Patient
John Samerigo, 42
Date of incident
January 6, 2022
Cause of death, per autopsy
Improper emergency medical therapy
Paramedic
Hiram Edmundo Ortega
Employer
Allegiance Mobile Health
Certification surrendered
October 2023
Rogers voted to keep the contract
July 14, 2026

What was reported

The Statesman reported in September 2023 that an autopsy found a private ambulance company paramedic responsible for a Pflugerville man's death, and named the company as Allegiance Mobile Health. According to that coverage the Department of State Health Services found that on January 6, 2022 the paramedic, Hiram Edmundo Ortega, performed a cricothyrotomy — an incision through the skin to open an airway — that was not necessary and that caused the death of 42-year-old John Samerigo. The department also found Ortega had an emergency medical technician administer a nerve-blocking agent, which an EMT is not permitted to do. Samerigo's cause of death was recorded as “improper emergency medical therapy, resulting in death.” In October 2023 the Statesman and KVUE reported that the department had moved to revoke Ortega's certification and that he surrendered it on October 11.

The timing is the point

Every fact above was public long before the vote. The incident was January 2022. The autopsy reporting ran in September 2023. The certification was surrendered in October 2023. In January 2024 the Statesman published a follow-up on Samerigo's widow a year after his death. Rogers voted against ending the city's contract with Allegiance on July 14, 2026 — two and a half years after the last of those stories.

What cuts the other way

David Rogers was not alone: Councilmember Ryan voted the same way, and gave reasons on the record about contract terms and response times, so a vote to keep the contract is not on its face unreasonable. Nothing in the record shows Rogers knew of the Samerigo case, and a vote on a service contract turns on cost, coverage and transition risk as well as on any one incident. The paramedic surrendered his certification; the company was not charged, and the reporting does not establish that Allegiance as a company was found responsible. The entry rests on what was publicly reported before the vote, not on what he privately knew.

What this does not assert

  • does not allege that Rogers caused, contributed to, or knew of this death
  • does not allege that Rogers had any relationship with the company or its paramedic
  • does not state his reasons for voting to keep the contract — the minutes record none
  • does not allege the company was criminally liable; the certification action was against the individual paramedic
  • does not assert facts of its own about the death — every detail here is what news outlets reported, attributed to them
  • does not assert a second death; we can document one
  • does not assert the Level Zero coverage figures reported to us, which are not sourced here

Sources