Mayor rips EMTs who refused to help dying pregnant mother

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS, C.J. SULLIVAN and JOE MOLLICA

Last Updated: 5:15 PM, December 23, 2009

Posted: 3:09 AM, December 21, 2009

Comments: 147

A furious Mayor Bloomberg yesterday blasted two EMTs who allegedly refused to help a dying, pregnant mom because they were on break at a Brooklyn coffee shop.

"It was unconscionable, [an] outrage, pick some adjectives and stick it in," the fuming mayor said at a news conference a day after The Post broke the scandal involving tragic mom Eutisha Revee Rennix, 25.

"The Fire Department, including EMS, is responsible for life-saving, and their first responsibility is to do that," the mayor said. "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. C'mon."

Helayne Seidman

SENSELESS: Eutisha Rennix (above) died of cardiac arrest at a Brooklyn Au Bon Pain after two EMTs allegedly refused to help because they were on break.

The two EMTs -- identified for The Post as Melisa Jackson and Jason Green -- were buying bagels in the Au Bon Pain at the Metrotech Center in Downtown Brooklyn on Dec. 9 when Rennix collapsed there -- and they allegedly ignored her.

Her toddler son has been crying, "Where's Mommy?" since her death, said her stunned and grieving family. Rennix's mother, Cynthia, angrily added that the FDNY hasn't offered one word of explanation -- or sympathy -- for the fiasco.

"It's disgusting," Cynthia Rennix said.

"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?' "

Witnesses have said the two EMTs -- trained medics working as dispatchers at FDNY headquarters at Metrotech -- were more interested in getting to their breakfast than helping the dying woman amid the panicked screams of her fellow workers.

Their cold advice: "Call 911," the witnesses said.

They then allegedly left the cafe before help arrived.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta yesterday reiterated that the matter "is under investigation."

A union official said EMT members are not contractually entitled to a responsibility-free meal period; members on duty and in uniform have an obligation to act in an emergency, and leaving a patient is "an act of abandonment," he said.

Frantic employees who were waiting for help after calling 911 had approached the medics standing in line at around 9 a.m. and asked for help for Rennix, who was apparently suffering a seizure and struggling to breathe. The EMTs, who were not identified, allegedly blew off the workers.

At 9:13 a.m., two other EMTs, William Martinez and Robert Suarez, were dispatched from Long Island College Hospital and arrived at 9:24 a.m. to what they believed was a noncritical call.

But before they arrived, by 9:22 a.m., Rennix's condition had dramatically worsened, and 911 was again called about a critical situation -- triggering the dispatch of a FDNY paramedic crew, which arrived at 9:28 a.m.

Rennix was already in cardiac arrest.

She was rushed to LICH and declared dead at 10:17 a.m. Her baby girl was delivered and died 2 hours and 10 minutes later.

The source said that when the FDNY paramedics jumped into the chaotic scene, the LICH crew was running back to their ambulance to get a defibrillator, which they had left in the vehicle.

The family is considering suing over the debacle.

Additional reporting by Edmund DeMarche and Zoey Russo

cj.sullivan@nypost.com

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Comments (104)

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radz

01/21/2010 8:46 PM

You want us to care? We only matter to your worthless selves when you're having an emergency so you can treat us like dirt the entire time. We get paid next to minimum wage to be your midnight taxi service. And even then, you're abusive, disrespectful, and generally just soulless. If you weren't so fat, we wouldn't have thousands of dollars in medical bills and the back problems of a ninety year old when we're in our early twenties. Your delinquent teenage gang members shoot at our ambulances. Not just bb guns, real guns. We are not counselors, we are not slaves, and we certainly aren't less than human. Stop treating us this way, and you'd have less incidents like this. You made your beds.
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Tesudita

12/22/2009 4:47 PM

I want to answer to the ScratchMyballs post of 12/21/09 with this question: In which galaxy do you live? All the so called "city employees" cannot be bothered when on their breaks, it was always like this, it is now and it will be forever! Most of them ARE in eternal break! Do not even think about even asking them something, they will answer to you: "make believe I am not here, I am on a break". They must think they are entitled to it and some of them they even think they are authority figures and civilians owed them respect and submission! SHAME ON ALL OF THEM! It is coming to you!
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Sparkina

12/22/2009 5:26 AM

Shoot, another typo:

Can our society SINK any lower? Man, I was shocked and appalled and sick to my heart when I read this article. Break or no break, these were people working in this field, who were trained to deal with this sort of thing, and they should have responded. This was an emergency. %&@! the lunch!
No, this is NOT a race thing. This is a HUMAN thing. I don't care if the parties involved were black, white, or pink with purple polka dots, these @$$holes behaved in an selfish, immature, irresponsible manner, two human lives -- the woman and her baby -- were lost because of it, and that's the end of it.
Working in emergency services isn't like working at a company. There's really no such thing as a break when you work in emergency services. If you work in emergency services and there is an emergency, you respond. Period.
The only uniform these lowlife jack@$$es deserve to be sporting is an apron and a silly paper hat, worn while standing behind the counter at a fast-food company saying "want fries with that?"
My heart cries for the poor little three-year-old who lost his mother and baby sister all because two grown, working adults in the emergency care field acted like selfish-@$$ pigs and cared more about eating their stupid lunch.
Like I said, can our society SINK ANY LOWER?
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Sparkina

12/22/2009 5:21 AM

Can our society SINK any lower? Man, I was shocked and appalled and sick to my heart when I read this article. Break or no break, these were people working in this field, who were trained to deal with this sort of thing, and they should have responded. This was an emergency. %&@! the lunch! I don't care if the parties involved were black, white, or pink with purple polka dots, these @$$holes behaved in an selfish, innature, irresponsible manner, two lives were lost because of it, and that's the end of it.
Working in emergency services isn't like working at a company. There's no such thing as a break when you work in emergency services. If you work in emergency services and there is an energency, you respond. Period. The only uniform these jack@$$es deserve to be sporting is an apron and a silly paper hat, worn while standing behind the counter at a fast-food company saying "want fries with that?"
My heart cries for the poor little three-year-old who lost his mother all because two grown, working adults in the emergency care field acted like selfish-@$$ pigs and cared more about eating their stupid lunch.
Like I said, can our society SINK ANY LOWER?
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sbqt

12/22/2009 4:41 AM

And they deserve to be in more trouble than just fired, which they definitely should be.
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sbqt

12/22/2009 4:37 AM

Unbelievable! Not only unconscionable, but extremely unprofessional. This has to be embarrassing for the FDNY.
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sudsslut

12/22/2009 3:48 AM

Gotta be jail time for these two. how are they ever goin to look at themselve's in a mirror from now on. And who would ever want them working for them in the future? Both are human trash
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Kimera

12/22/2009 2:25 AM

I hope both of these lowlifes are charged with TWO counts of murder... granted the best we can do is 2nd degree, but heres hoping they get the max and are forced to serve consecutive (not concurrent) terms.