By EMS1 Staff
DETROIT — An EMT awaits trial for willful neglect of duty after the mother pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Click on Detroit reported that Janee Wright-Trussell pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and first-degree child abuse after 8-month-old I’Nayah Wright-Trussell died from suffocation. She was sentenced to eight to 15 years in prison.
I’Nayah was on an oxygen machine due to birth complication, and her death was ruled a homicide.
Officials said Wright-Trussell called 911, but when EMT Ann Marie Thomas was dispatched to the scene, she refused to respond despite being just around the corner.
Thomas and her partner parked on the corner a street away from the home, but did not go to the house.
“Uh, Romeo 33? Updated information that the child is not breathing. The baby was hooked up to an oxygen machine because it was premature. Romeo 33?” the dispatcher said to Thomas. “Romeo 33, Medic 51, be advised CPR is being performed on your scene. Romeo 33, Medic 51. CPR is being performed by the baby’s mother.”
After two internal investigations, it was revealed that Thomas told her supervisor, “I’m not about to be on no scene 10 minutes doing CPR, you know how these families get.”
Thomas was fired from Detroit Fire Department and her trial is set for February.