Update -- Wednesday, 4:40 p.m:. Executive Detroit Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins issued a statement saying that EMT Ann Marie Thomas has been fired.
Today, we conducted an appeals hearing, which Ms. Thomas requested. After reviewing all of the facts of this incident, I have determined that the appropriate course of action is to terminate Ms. Thomas’ employment with the Detroit Fire Department effective immediately.
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Original article:
This is one of those stories that's hard to comprehend.
A Detroit Fire Department emergency medical technician (EMT) is under investigation for not responding to a call in which a baby eventually died, Shawn Ley of WDIV reports that. The city employee is suspended.
The incident began when medic Ann Marie Thomas got a call on the radio to respond to a baby that wasn't breathing, WDIV reports. The baby was premature and had been hooked up to an oxygen machine.
The home was less than a mile away from where the EMT worker was.
"33, I’m going to need you to make that scene," said the Detroit Fire EMS supervisor on the radio. "You’re going to have to make patient contact."
WDIV reports that the 8-month-old baby was nine-tenths of a mile away -- a two minute drive at normal speeds -- but Thomas took six minutes and then shocked dispatchers by telling them "33 is in position on Pembroke around the corner from the scene."
Thomas parked a street away from the baby, Ley reports, adding that Thomas refused to go in the house.
Then came this from the dispatcher:
"Romeo 33, Medic 51, be advised CPR is being performed on your scene. Romeo 33, Medic 51. CPR is being performed by the baby's mother."
A report of an internal investigation said that Thomas told her boss, "I'm not about to be on no scene 10 minutes doing CPR, you know how these families get," according to WDIV.
The station says the baby was revived and rushed to a hospital, but she died the next morning.
