SEA ISLE CITY — A federal judge ruled that a wrongful death suit can proceed on behalf of a woman whose body was found in the water off Sea Isle City following a Polar Bear Plunge event.

Tracy Hottenstein, 35, was found by a fisherman on Feb. 14, 2009, the morning after the event, which annually draws thousands to the Jersey Shore community. She had been drinking following the event, in which participants plunge into the frigid Atlantic, and fell off a dock sometime after 2:15 a.m. on Feb. 14. Her body was found hours later by a local fisherman.

Her parents filed suit against the city, police and emergency officials in 2011.

Though he dismissed many of the counts in the suit, court documents show U.S. District Judge Joseph Irenas ruled that malpractice claims against the doctor who pronounced her dead could proceed, as well as demand for punitive damages against the doctor, the city and its police.

The suit hinges on the circumstances and actions of emergency officials minutes after Hottenstein’s body was found.

Police who arrived at the scene first found Hottenstein had no pulse and was not breathing and her body was cold and gray. They made the determination she had died and cordoned off the area as a crime scene.

As such, members of the Sea Isle Ambulance Corps were unable to access Hottenstein and render aid when they arrived a short time later. A paramedic from Atlanticare

Regional Medical Center was eventually allowed through and called Zaki Khebzou, a doctor with the group, for an official pronouncement of death. Khebzou made the pronouncement at 8:22 a.m.

But an expert testified that Hottenstein may have been alive when she was found, contending that the symptoms of severe hypothermia are very similar to death.

In New Jersey, in order to make a pronouncement of death outside of a hospital, a doctor, by regulation, is expected to obtain the results of a electrocardiogram from a paramedic or other medical professional if at all possible.

In a deposition to the court, Khebzou acknowledged he knew of this requirement but declared Hottenstein dead without receiving any electrocardiogram results.

"Given that Tracy may have been alive at 8:22 a.m., Khebzou’s pronouncement may have been premature and cut off Tracy’s opportunity to receive medical care,” Irenas wrote in his opinion.

RELATED COVERAGE:

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• Police release details on death of woman found on Cape May County shore

• Pa. woman found in N.J. bay was Polar Bear Plunge attendee

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