A 911 operator has been charged with manslaughter after he refused to send an ambulance to a bleeding woman in Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported.
A criminal complaint filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania last month says 50-year-old Leon Price, in a 911 call between himself and Kelly Titchnell, refused to send an ambulance to her mother unless she indicated she was going to the hospital .
Titchnell made the 911 call in July 2020, according to court documents. In the complaint, Titchennell’s attorneys said she described her 56-year-old mother, Diana Cronk, as “jaundiced, incoherent and bleeding from the rectum” to Price.
But Price told her “outright” that no emergency services like an ambulance would be dispatched to her mother because it would be a “waste of resources,” the complaint said.
“No emergency care was requested that day as a result of Defendant Price’s actions, and as an immediate and/or direct result of the lack of emergency medical care, Diana Cronk died,” according to the complaint.
If Price had sent an ambulance or some kind of emergency help, the complaint says, Cronk would at least have suffered less and could have had a “more dignified” death.
The lawsuit also says Price must have been aware of the seriousness of the situation because of Titchennell’s “pleading tone and description of what was seriously wrong with her mother.”
“Price had no authority, by law or otherwise, to presumptuously refuse favors” to Cronk or Titchennell, the lawsuit alleges.
Cronk died the next day.
“I believe in my heart that my mother would still be alive if he had sent an ambulance,” Titchnell said, according to the Washington Post. “It shouldn’t have been his decision. He should have sent an ambulance and let the professionals decide whether she should go to hospital or not.”
Two years later, authorities in Greene County, Pennsylvania, charged Price with involuntary manslaughter, the Post reported, which carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine along with five years in prison.
Add Comment