NYC EMTs Allegedly Ignored Dying Woman

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."

The two EMTs 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.

Republished with permission of The New York Post.