NY EMTs Under Fire For Intentionally Letting Pregnant Woman Die

Two NY EMTs Suspended As Officials Look Into Allegations They Refused To Help Pregnant Woman Who Later Died


Two city Emergency Medical Technicians were suspended without pay Monday while officials investigate accusations they refused to help a pregnant Brooklyn woman who collapsed in front of them and later died.

Jason Green, 32, and Melissa Jackson, 23, were suspended after witnesses said they callously walked out with their bagels and said "Call 911" instead of trying to help Eutisha Revee Rennix, who was gasping for air while sprawled on a coffee shop floor on Dec. 9.

Green and Jackson - who FDNY sources said are dating - work in the Emergency Medical Service dispatch center in the Metrotech complex, and their offices are directly above the Au Bon Pain where Rennix worked.

"We've known them for years," said Au Bon Pain employee Tareen Brown, 29. "We thought they'd do something ... [but] they said there was nothing they could do."

"They wouldn't put in any effort," said barista Lourdes Colon, 19. "She was lying on the floor and they just told me call 911."

Green had been an EMT for six years and Jackson for four, FDNY officials said.

Pat Bahnken, president of the EMT and Paramedics Union, said paramedics' job is to always help those in need. "If these allegations are true, then they should be disciplined," he said.

Rennix died a short time after collapsing. Her unborn child, delivered after just six months, died two hours after her mother.





Brooklyn Mother Rips Heartless EMTs Who Are Accused Of Refusing To Help Her Dying Daughter


A grief-stricken Brooklyn mother blasted two off-duty city emergency medical technicians Sunday who are being investigated for refusing to help her dying pregnant daughter - decrying the medics as "heartless."

Cynthia Rennix wept for her 25-year-old daughter Eutisha Revee Rennix, who died after collapsing in front of two FDNY EMTs who were buying bagels at the shop where she worked - but declined to help.

"They are useless. They are heartless," said Rennix, surrounded by relatives in her Flatlands home. "They are trained. They should be more responsive."

The expectant mom was working Dec. 9 at the Au Bon Pain at Metrotech in downtown Brooklyn, steps from FDNY headquarters, when she felt shortness of breath and intense stomach pain, her relatives said.

Co-workers said they begged two EMTs in the store to help, but they only callously turned and said, "Call 911" before walking out with their food.

"Those EMS workers who didn't help. ...She would have been alive," said a colleague who asked that her name not be used.

The two EMTs were placed on modified duty and are barred from providing patient care, FDNY officials said. Reports of their inaction infuriated Mayor Bloomberg.

"It was unconscionable," said Bloomberg. "But 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. Come on."

An ambulance from Long Island College Hospital arrived 11 minutes later, but those EMTs did not have some of the equipment needed to help, sources said. That crew also is being investigated, FDNY officials said.

Eutisha Revee Rennix's unborn child, delivered after just six months, died after her mother. The girl was posthumously named Jahniya Renne Woodson.

Rennix and her baby were buried Friday.

Her family said they asked for an autopsy, but sources said the medical examiner was never notified.

"I am angry," said the dead woman's twin brother, Eudane Rennix, a soldier stationed in Kuwait who rushed home to comfort his family. "[The FDNY] should apologize. They should try to reach out to the family."



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Sources: NY Daily News, MSNBC, AP, Youtube, Google Maps