AN American man is suing a former firefighter-paramedic today after the woman stole his foot and part of his leg from the scene of a car crash in 2008.

Cynthia Economou - a former firefighter-paramedic with the St Lucie County Fire District in Fort Pierce, Florida - admitted taking Karl Lambert's foot after he was seriously injured in the September 2008 car crash on I-95, according to TCPalm.com.

A lawsuit filed during the past week on Mr Lambert's behalf alleges that Ms Economou's actions were "outrageous and went beyond the bounds of decency ... odious and utterly intolerable in a civilised society".

However, Ms Economou said she took the foot to help train her body-recovery dog. At a sentencing hearing in 2009, she said that she found the foot an hour after Mr Lambert was taken to the hospital.

"It was an unrecognisable mass of flesh. It wasn't a clean cut. You couldn't even recognize it as a foot ... If I had thought it was somehow reattachable and usable, I would have gone to my commander," she said.

Ms Economou, who was named the district's firefighter of the year in 2007, left her job after the incident. She pleaded no contest to a charge of second-degree petit theft and was sentenced to six months' probation.

The lawsuit named St Lucie Country Fire District as the defendant, as Mr Lambert and his attorney claim that the district was "vicariously liable for any and all actions" by Ms Economou.



Originally published as Crash victim sues paramedic who stole foot