On the one hand, EMS is probably better off with Leon Price. On the other hand, filing criminal charges when there was no intent is definitely not going to induce people to go into EMS as a career.

Charges dropped against former Pa. dispatcher who didn’t send ambulance in 2020 death

Despite Titchenell’s pleas, as her mother, Diania Kronk, was unresponsive and turning yellow, Dispatcher Leon Price stated he would send an ambulance but repeatedly insisted on needing her mother’s consent, even though she was unable to speak, KDKA reported.

Yeah, that’s pretty dumb. Not the fact that Mrs. Kronk was unable to speak, but it’s not the dispatcher’s job to determine if the patient is willing to go to the hospital or competent to make the decision to refuse to go. That’s what the on scene personnel are supposed to do.

A week before trial, Greene County District Attorney Brianna Vanata dropped the criminal charges against then-911 dispatcher Leon Price in the death of Diania Kronk. The charges were filed by Dave Russo, the former district attorney in the county.

Maybe an election year issue?

Price remains employed by the county, but the article doesn’t tell us what job he has. Hopefully nothing where decision making is involved.

Mrs. Kronk’s family is suing in federal court for “callous refusal of public emergency medical services.” Which doesn’t seem like a federal offense or anything that a local court shouldn’t be able to handle. I hope that they aren’t the victims of a callous law firm. Of course if it ever gets to trial we’ll probably not ever hear of it.

Sadly, we seem to be drifting towards a European view of what is and isn’t a crime. Which means that while stupidity is not a crime, nor should it be, stupid people shouldn’t be in EMS.

I’m just going to use my generic EMS Artifact featured image as I refuse to use the staged by her lawyers picture of the daughter holding a picture of her mom.

The moral of the story is that if someone calls 9-1-1 for an ambulance, send the ambulance. I know that we see a lot of dumb calls in EMS, but that’s not going to change in the foreseeable future. If nothing else, it gives us good stories to tell over a few beers.