Mayor Bloomberg called out two EMTs accused of refusing to aid a dying pregnant woman because they were on break. According to onlookers, the medics told employees at a Downtown Brooklyn Au Bon Pain to call 911 when cafe worker Eutisha Revee Rennix, 25, collapsed and began having a seizure on Dec. 9. "It was unconscionable, [an] outrage, pick some adjectives and stick it in," said the Mayor. "The Fire Department, including EMS, is responsible for life-saving, and their first responsibility is to do that … [b]ut even if they weren't part of the Fire Department sworn to protect all of us, just normal human beings, drop your coffee and go help somebody if they're dying. C'mon."
The two EMTs who purchased their bagels and left may have committed "an act of abandonment," according to union officials. The Post reports that city medics are "not contractually entitled to a responsibility-free meal period," and those "on duty and in uniform have an obligation to act in an emergency." The first medics arrived on the scene 11 minutes later from Long Island College Hospital, but they apparently believed they were responding to a non-critical call and left their defibrillator in their vehicle.
Another team of paramedics arrived and Rennix was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 10:17 am. Her baby — a girl posthumously named Jahniya Renne Woodson, according to the Daily News — died two hours and ten minutes later. The medics who declined to help and the crew that arrived without proper equipment are being investigated. Rennix's mother described the situation as "disgusting" and the medics as "heartless." "We've heard nothing from the city. No one has called to apologize or explain. Her [3-year-old] son, Jahleel, senses what is going on ... He keeps asking, 'Where's Mommy?'"
