A Philadelphia ambulance
PHILADELPHIA – A lackluster performance by emergency medical personnel cost a Philadelphia woman her life, a new federal lawsuit says.
EMTs parked their ambulance so far away they had to drag Armada Wilson down the street in a chair, says a suit filed Jan. 28 in Philadelphia. This was after treatment was delayed in Wilson’s house for no good reason, it adds.
“Wilson eventually succumbed as a result of the defendants’ failure to provide timely and adequate medical attention and/or treatment,” the complaint says.
“The conduct of the defendants constituted cruel and unusual punishment, which evidences a deliberate indifference to decedent Armada Wilson’s health, well-being and medical needs, shocks the conscience and offends the standards of decency in society.”
Armada was 65 years old on Feb. 13, 2024, when her granddaughter Nahijah called 911 because Armada was having trouble breathing. It was about the fifth time in 10 years that Armada needed emergency attention at her house on S. Hemberger St.
Previously, the suit says, EMTs would show up within 10 minutes of the call and park their ambulance directly in front of the house. But this time it took 20 minutes, and they left the ambulance at the end of the block.
EMTs Emily Klenk and Dylan Trost allegedly brought no medical equipment with them to Armada’s house and instead asked her about her oxygen tank’s cord rather than taking her vitals. Nahijah voiced her concern as to the lack of urgency, the suit says, and started recording on her phone.
The complaint calls Klenk “agitated and argumentative” while Armada’s condition deteriorated. The EMTs were there for at least 10 minutes before deciding to put Armada in the ambulance but they had failed to bring a stretcher, it adds.
“Importantly, as only Defendants Klenk and Trost were on the scene having made the decisions not to call for backup assistance and not to bring a stretcher to use in transport, Klenk and Trost spent several minutes strapping her to a small chair, expending more of their response time, and making their ability to timely and effectively move decedent Armada Wilson out of the home extremely difficult,” the suit says.
“During this critically wasted time, decedent Armada Wilson became unresponsive which made moving her safely and swiftly without proper equipment even more difficult.”
Photos in the complaint show the two dragging Armada down the block in a chair around 11:40 a.m. By 11:45, there were police and fire trucks on the scene, allegedly prompted by Armada’s daughter Shedira calling 911 to describe her mother’s treatment.
Armada fell into a coma with a collapsed lung. She died six days later.
“Plaintiff alleges that if decedent had been taken to Jefferson Hospital in a timely manner, or if Defendants Klenk and Trost provided timely and proper medical care and treatment, decedent Armada Wilson would have survived,” the suit says.
Nathan Murawsky and others at Wapner, Newman, Brecher & Miller represent the plaintiff.
