BUFFALO, N.Y. — The family of a man with Cerebral Palsy who suffered a stroke accused a responding Rural/Metro EMT of getting angry and storming out of the house, leaving the patient on the floor.
Rural/Metro has launched an investigation into the incident, WIVB reports.
The incident occurred when Saldred Villanueva, a former certified nurse’s assistant, called 911 when she found her son Oscar Rodriquez, 42, couldn’t open his mouth and his body was stiff, but he was still breathing.
Two EMTs responded and as one assessed Oscar the family says one of them took offense when Rodriguez’s brother, Louis, requested the EMTs get a stretcher and take him to the hospital.
He recalls saying: “Why don’t you go grab the stretcher out of the ambulance so we can get my brother to the hospital. Bad enough the weather conditions are bad as it is.”
He said the EMT looked at him and replied, ‘Oh, you’re not going to tell me what to do. If you’re going to get hostile … I could just leave your brother laying on the floor there, and I could just leave.”
As he said ‘Let’s go, let’s go,’ Villanueva said she started screaming and crying, and Louis said he took out his cell phone to document the incident on video, which escalated the situation.
They say the EMT left the house and sat in the ambulance until his partner went out and brought him back inside the home.
Oscar Rodriguez was then carried outside and transported to a local hospital. It was determined he suffered a stroke, and he is now in a medically induced coma.
The family said the EMT acted improperly and should be held accountable. Rural/Metro is investigating the complaint.