Witnesses: EMTs Ignored Dying Pregnant Woman In Brooklyn Cafe

Ok, Let me ask everyone here posting replies to this story both a scenario and a question . Question, What if YOU were the EMT's in the middle of this arguement and say your partner ate some bad cheese and had the Shits . You stop @ a restaurant to let your partner go relieve themselves and just by chance someone collaspses on the sidewalk right in the path of your partner who's trying to get to the bathroom to take a serious shit ! What would You do if You were that Emt with the Shit's and it was about to explode out your ass something serious . Answer, You would hop your ass over that person and run to that toilet and handle your business ! No one here would say they would stay and help the injuried person and if you did , Your a Lying shit-faced bastard ! Point blank !!!!

i LOVE how they're making such a big deal about this happening next to the dispatch center. do they GET that dispatchers are not medical professionals? Do they get that ambulances arent stationed there? its merely the liason between the 9-1-1 caller and the ambulance drivers...they collect information and relay it to the closest responding unit... its like someone losing a shoe outside Nike's world headquarters and pitching a fit when they cant get a new shoe from the ceo.

seriously.

as a health care professional, i will admit that i would NEVER use the excuse of "im on break" to not assist a person in need but i can also say there are rules concerning insurance etc when assisting someone when on break. For example, these EMTs being technically AT WORK but ON BREAK could mean that if they attempt to perform cpr etc they would not be covered by their insurance if anything untoward were to occur. You would be surprised by how many people attempt to sue first responders to an accident scene for untoward outcomes.

Y'all need to chill. Are these two EMT's? Paramedic is a level of EMT training, OR are they just dispatchers. Dispatchers take information and send trained EMT's to the job. You can't count on the Post to be right.

ok ironic was a poor choice of words.

theres no mention of a father, if the circumstances of the story were different it would be 100% media & commemter slant about a welfare queen who should keep her legs closed while on the dole.

911 service abusers were recently profiled in the news and gothamist, i meant it could apply as in...what took so long to respond...those ambulance abusers..

sorry busy giving a junkie a free ride again, fdny might be tied up giving mouth to mouth to a beakless swan in prospect park, saving a pigeon tied to a tree or maybe hosing down an elephant in coney island for the circus. (those arent made up)

They are probably guilty as charged. The union dis-associated from them, and I doubt they will defend them other than to give them due process. This has happened more than once over the past 30 years- primarily because EMS pays so little and treats their staff so poorly that, well, you get what you pay for. This has never changed: EMS traditionally does 10 times the calls of the Fire Department with 1/10th the staff at 2/3rds the pay.

What was MORE interesting is that there were at least 2 other FDNY employees in the restaurant at the same time, and they didn't volunteer at first either (although they eventually did stand up and try to help....)

Nobody is more cynical that somebody who spend 20 years "on the bus."

Scot

According to the Post article, these two were yes, trained EMTs who work as dispatchers. Meaning they are the lazy ones who hate being out in the street with patients. It has been no secret that EMS has a real retention problem, particularly with at the BLS level (AKA EMT-B). They aren't paid very well and it is not easy work.

They should just train the firemen to the EMT level and be done with it. Then privatize the ambulances and have the hospitals run them. But then again, they want to continue to dumb down the FDNY in the name of diversity and political correctness. The result will be fire trucks driving away from fires "because they are on a break".

please don't confuse emt's with firefighters.we would never walk away if someone needed help,never!many people where the fdny logo on their backs,but are not firefighters.please don't confuse ems with us.

Potsmoker: your use of the word "ironic" is not even correct. Learn your vocabulary properly before you use words you don't know in sentences. Another scum bag post from you. "...and remarks about welfare dirtbags using 911 as a personal limo service could apply in this case." She was having a seizure, was pregnant, became hypoxic, and went into cardiac arrest. She was clearly using that ambulance as a personal limo that day!

No raises for the next 50 years, pricks.

names need to be posted....c'mon goth's...get the names.

the finest of NYC!

Second Degree Manslaughter Charges... that's what the EMT guys should be getting.

union animals.

I hope I'm there someday when these two animals are begiing for life and no one will help them.

I hope these assholes enjoyed there muffin and their break.

Do they serve breakfast in hell?

i hope this woman's family sues them & the city (yes, i know the payout will come from my tax dollars)

the ironic thing about this article is there is no mention of a father. and remarks about welfare dirtbags using 911 as a personal limo service could apply in this case. now that the baby momma drama is over, expect about 6 to 8 men to appear on Jerry SPringer for the test results, the father of that perished fetus is about to be a freakin gaziliionaire!!!

Not being equipped to provide patient care immediately isn't an excuse for not assisting the patient to appropriate care as quickly as you know how.

But the comment I wanted to make is that you should never walk around NYC in an "FDNY" sweater unless you're prepared for someone to run up to you with something like this.

Would an A.B.P. employee hook you up with a croissant if you were starving and they were off the clock?

ha!

And, in balance, if every welfare dirtbag didn't expect an ambulance ride for their cold, their detox or their "momflies", there would be more buses available for real emergencies like this one.

momflies?

Many possible scenarios.

BLS transport unit, no equipment.

Miscommunication, EMTs felt in danger when they were "screamed and cursed" at.

Bus that responded (11 minutes is a LONG time) may have been nearest available, not fully equipped, did a grab & run.

Or, some BS civil-servant D-bags who just don't care.

Like with the other services, when suits are filed, the damages should come out of that service's pension fund, not the taxpayer's dollar, with a heavy dollop of personal hit to the wrongdoer. There's probably very few NYC employees who live in the city (go ahead, screech out now you unappreciated teachers). Let pensions be based on what's in the kitty after the malfeasance cut, then you'll see city employees actually trying to do their jobs.

I'm not sure of the whole story. Are they dispatchers who were on break from 9 Metro or were they an actual ambulance crew with an ambulance parked outside? Inexcusable either way but would be an interesting detail to know.

Bloomberg is doing such a remarkable job handling the city dept-slush funds in city council, mobs in building dept, deutsche bank, homeless,kids failed national tests, etc. And the remarkable thing is that Bloomberg is hardly ever in NYC. It's progress not politics people.

"All of our members take an oath to assist others in need of emergency medical aid. They have a duty to act when called," said FDNY spokesman Steve Ritea.

Do they also have a duty to kill babies? Because that's what they did.

I don't know how these two EMTs can sleep at night. This is, in the words of Hizzoner Bloomberg, "unconscionable." In none of my jobs did I ever blow off someone by saying I'm on a break, off the clock or on lunch. It didn't matter. If someone asked for help, I did it.

What made this worse was that Metrotech is only blocks from the Brooklyn Hospital Center. Why did the FDNY guys just call 911 instead of putting her in a car and getting her to the emergency room in about three minutes?

It says a "private hospital crew" responded in the Post article. The voluntary hospitals (i.e. LICH, Methodist, Lutheran, Maimonides, Brookdale, Kingsbrook, Community, Lenox Hill, New York-Presbyterian, St. Luke's-Roosevelt, St. Vincent's, etc) are among the absolute BEST in providing emergency care. It is a popular misconception that they are just some group of private ambulances that pick up the slack when FDNY is busy. They are 911 ambulances who, more often than not, respond to your 911 calls and likely will give you equal if not better care than FDNY BLS and ALS units. In that area it was likely a LICH, Methodist, or Brooklyn Hospital ambulance that responded. All of whom have excellent track records.

If someone had gone up and stabbed one of those idiots then there would be people on hand.

I really really really hope somebody took the emt's truck plates and reported them to the authorities for some kind of negligence...the system cannot simply be that broken...I really hope they lose their jobs...

Hey Ben, I hate to be a stickler, but your entire article does not mention when this happened. For anyone else who may be wondering, like I was, it was Dec 9th, 9am (according to the Post).

Sounds fishy. I would bet it didn't go down like that. Maybe employees trying to get a lawsuit for dead coworker. I could see them driving by, but not walking away.

Tragic story. Hopefully the family will win a huge lawsuit and new laws will be made to enforce service from EMT's. These EMT bastards should pay for this personally. There is such a lack of caring and personal responsibility in this story.

HUMANS SUCK AT LIFE sometimes.

"Sorry, can't help. I'm on my break."

Definitely a union worker.

the law says that if you're off duty, you're not required to step in and help out. but once you get involved, you can't leave, otherwise it counts as abandonment. that's just the law, ethics would say otherwise.

also, they might have been EMT-Bs and not medics; we're not actually that well-trained or well-informed to do anything beyond what the average citizen can do.

I may be wrong but I'm not sure that it's even legal for EMT's (or anyone who is first aid certified) to ignore someone who is seriously ill whether they are on duty or off duty.

This is heartbreaking, and what's worse is that this isn't surprising. I once witnessed an elderly man unconscious on the sidewalk, on St.Marks place. An EMS ambulance was a few feet away and the EMT's jumped in and started to drive off. When I flagged them down, with a mouthfull of food, they too instructed me to call 911.

After calling 911, FDNY showed up to render assistance, but no EMS. Go figure.

This is a disgrace and it is a real travesty that these two EMT workers are given a paid vacation while the investigation is being conducted. They should be suspended without pay.

I didn't realize we get breaks from being human beings.

At least there's the other article about the river rescue, with its contrasting image of heroic emergency services saving a woman's life.

EMS-union head Pat Bahnken said the allegations against the EMTs are being taken seriously.

"Such an isolated incident in no way reflects the professionalism our members exhibit every day. But, if a full investigation shows the allegations to be true, we expect these people to be punished to the fullest extent," he said.

Oh but it most certainly does reflect on you profession and you sure as hell better treat it as such starting with releasing these two cowards' names so that they may face the full wrath of the public.

By 'punished to the fullest extent' Pat Bahnken means: We've got our almight union lawyer on this one and expect them to be cleared of all charges. We'll put them on probation, paid of course, and make sure they're back on the job "serving the community and saving lives" about six months from now. 'Til then we'll be withholding their names.

I hope these two get the shit beaten out of them in prison until their begging for mercy.

I hope those employees at au bon pain will spit in the emt's food from now on.

even though there's a firehouse right across from my building I called 911 when my old man had a heart attack.

I'm sorry but when you're an EMT, are you truly ever on a "break"? I think not. This story is so unfortunate. I hope those EMTs feel like complete sh*t after this and get fired.

Fired? Put in jail is more like it.

Fired? Your kidding me.

They are union. Written warning is all they will get.

"barring them from providing care to patients" - They didn't do that anyway. Sounds like they are just making life easier for these lazy "on their break" f*cker$.

Any article that includes the line "the fetus also perished" is one I'd rather not be reading on a Sunday afternoon. This story makes me angry.

I hope you anger is geared towards those incompetent EMS workers who did not take their job serious. There's no better satisfaction than knowing you made every attempt to save a life if you could

So, they shouldn't have posted the story lest they bother your senses on this Sunday? This story needed to be told. You read the headline - you knew what you were getting.

I believe DanielJ was referring to the fact that it just shouldn't happen, not the fact that they wrote about it. I'm not 100% if that's the case, but that's how I took it.