Detroit EMT Refused To Help Dying Baby: Prosecutor

DETROIT, MI — A former Detroit emergency medical technician is charged in the death two years ago of an 8-month-old infant after she intentionally delayed her response to an emergency dispatch that the baby was struggling to breathe, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. Ann Marie Thomas, 45, was charged with one count of willful neglect of duty, a one-year misdemeanor.

Thomas took the call for help at a home on the 19900 block of Glastonbury Road at 5:45 p.m. on May 30, 2015, but intentionally delayed her response, stopped her vehicle and parked around the corner, less than a mile away from the location, Worthy said. Another EMT unit was dispatched to the location to assist the child, i'Nayah Wright-Trussel, who died the next day at Sinai Grace Hospital in Detroit

The child had been born prematurely in September 2014 and had since been assisted by an oxygen machine.

Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller told MLive.com that charges against Thomas were delayed because some documents were not received from the Detroit Fire Department until February, and also because of an ongoing homicide investigation against the child’s mother, Janee Wright-Trussell.

Wright-Trussell is scheduled to go to trial June 5 on three counts of first-degree child abuse and one count of felony murder. The charges were filed Nov. 30, but weren’t publicly disclosed until the former EMT was charged, WDIV-TV reported.

A lawsuit filed by the the child’s estate alleges Thomas parked her vehicle and waited six minutes before telling dispatchers that she wasn’t going to assist the child.

“I’m not about to be on no scene 10 minutes doing CPR,” she said, according to media reports at the time. “You know how these families get.”

The dispatcher pleaded with Thomas to assist the dying child, according to the lawsuit, telling Thomas: “I’m going to need you to make that scene. You’re going to have to make patient contact.”

Thomas continued to refuse, and the second EMT vehicle rushed the child to the hospital, according to the lawsuit, which said that by then,Wright-Trussell had already begun CPR.

Thomas was suspended and then fired by the city of Detroit on June 24, 2015, Worthy said in the statement. She was arraigned Wednesday before 36th District Court Judge Roberta Archer,, who set bond at $25,000. A pretrial conference will be held at 8:30 a.m. April 28.

Wright-Trussell dismissed her civil lawsuit on Nov. 15 after a settlement conference, but it’s unclear if she received any financial compensation.

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