RALEIGH, N.C. — A local paramedic is firing back about his role in a case in which a man was mistaken for dead.

In January, the paramedic and another EMT mistakenly declared an accident victim dead. Both later lost their jobs.

Larry Donnell Green, who went without medical help for two hours before being discovered alive, is in Duke Hospital in serious condition.

The attorney of one paramedic involved says his client is being unfairly blamed -- and the paramedic is asking for his job back

"Everybody knows there's a lawsuit coming so they're trying to get people out there (who) they can lay the blame on," said Jack Nichols, who is representing paramedic Randy Kearney.

Read The Franklin County Attorney's Report

Kearney was the first responder to the scene the night Green was hit by a car.

The county attorney said he and second responder Paul Kilmer should have at least hooked Green up to a heart monitor.

Both were fired.

But Kearney's attorney argues his client was a paramedic by day and volunteer firefighter by night and that Kearney wasn't working as a paramedic when he responded.

"He had a choice," Nichols said. "He was off duty -- he wasn't even working as a paramedic -- so he could have chosen not to answer the call at all."

But Kearney did make that choice and Nichols says lost his job because of it.

Kearney has filed a petition asking for his job back.