EMS audio reveals new details on Lindsey Graham’s sudden death: ‘CPR in progress now’

New details regarding the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) emerged Sunday after veteran journalist Dave Statter obtained audio of the emergency medical services (EMS) radio traffic from the call.

“Emergency radio traffic indicates that Senator Lindsey Graham suffered chest pains before going into cardiac arrest Saturday night,” Statter wrote Sunday morning in a social media post on X. “Efforts to revive the South Carolina lawmaker were not successful. Graham died two days after his 71st birthday.”

Multiple outlets have reported that Graham was transported from his home in Washington, D.C. to George Washington University Hospital around 9:30 p.m. The South Carolina Republican’s office announced his death just under four hours later from what they described as a “brief and sudden illness.”

In the audio of the EMS radio traffic, a person Statter identified as a “dispatcher” can be heard asking for an update from “Engine 7,” a reference to Engine House No. 7, a D.C. fire station.

“CPR is in progress now,” an official with Engine 7 can be heard saying.

Statter also wrote that the radio traffic suggested the emergency call came from “a woman in Baltimore,” and that first responders initially “could not get anyone to answer the door” and “apparently forced entry into the home.”

“The radio traffic gives the impression that Senator Graham may not have immediately been in cardiac arrest when they arrived, but there is no confirmation of that information,” Statter wrote.

As noted by Statter, Saturday night’s incident marks the second time in a month that D.C. EMS was dispatched to the home of a Republican senator potentially suffering from cardiac arrest, with the first being Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in mid-June.