But Lois Deloy had no teeth or salivary glands. And what may have been a Hartford Hospital nurse’s attempt to ease the diabetic woman’s concerns over missing lunch proved to be a deathblow.

She died on a gurney in 1999 en route to the Woodland Health Center in Waterbury, Conn. Thomas Whalen and Alexander Busch, two EMTs from Aetna Ambulance Service, were on board, but couldn’t prevent Deloy from choking to death.