Detroit EMT accused of refusing to help dying baby

DETROIT - An emergency medical technician has been fired after being accused of refusing to go to a home where an 8-month-old baby had stopped breathing.

WDIV-TV reports that Detroit Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins announced the employee's firing Wednesday. Jenkins said an appeals hearing was held Wednesday at the EMT's request, and he determined firing her was "the appropriate course of action."

According to the station, the EMT was told to respond to the call for help, and she parked her vehicle about a street away.

"[The EMT] refused to respond to a call for service for a baby not breathing for no reason other than not wanting to perform CPR for what she perceived to be an extended period of time," Captain Jerald James wrote in the report.

An internal report cited by WDIV-TV says she told her supervisor: "I'm not about to be on no scene 10 minutes doing CPR. You know how these families get."

WDIV reports that an ambulance eventually got to the home, but the baby died the next morning at a hospital. The EMT did respond to the home after a total of 19 minutes and several requests from dispatch, reports CBS Detroit.

Charlie Langton, a legal analyst for CBS Detroit, told the station the woman could face criminal prosecution.

"She could be charged with willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor charge," said Langton. "Also, she and the city could face a civil lawsuit for alleged deliberate refusal to treat a patient."

Crimesider is withholding the EMT's name because she has not yet been charged with any criminal activity.