A Detroit EMT who refused to enter a family's home May 30 to help save an 8-month-old baby who had stopped breathing has been fired.
Suggested Reading
According to Click on Detroit, Detroit Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins fired Ann Marie Thomas after the veteran medic received a call about a baby, Aniyah Wright, who had stopped breathing. Thomas was given the call because she was less than a mile from the child's house. Thomas and her partner reportedly arrived on the scene quickly and told dispatch that she was parked on the corner waiting for other teams to arrive.
Click on Detroit reports that Thomas didn't want to enter the house until other units arrived because she thought that the family would be hostile. There are no reports as to why Thomas reportedly believed this, but she allegedly told a supervisor who instructed her to enter the house and help the 8-month-old, "I'm not about to be on no scene 10 minutes doing CPR; you know how these families get."
A crew arrived some 12 minutes after the call was placed and rushed the baby—who had been born prematurely and had slipped off her breathing machine—to the hospital, where they were able to get her breathing, although she died the next day.
"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," said Jenkins in a statement released Wednesday and viewed by Click on Detroit.
"My daughter would have been here if she just came around that corner and responded to my cry for help," the baby's mother, Janee Wright-Trussell, told the news station.
Read more at Click on Detroit.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.