Washington DC Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Over Death of 2 Year Old

The family of a two-year-old girl who died after allegedly being refused ambulance service has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Washington, D.C. and D.C. Fire and EMS.  

The complaint was filed in late September in the D.C. Superior Court by the family of Stephanie Stephens. According to the Washington DC malpractice lawsuit, the parents called 911 when the young girl began to have trouble breathing. However, three paramedics who showed up at the home refused to take her to the hospital. Her mother called 911 again eight hours later, when her condition worsened, and this time the paramedics took the girl to Children’s National Medical Center, where she died the next day due to pneumonia, a strep infection and septic shock; all of which the first paramedics failed to diagnose. 

The lawsuit claims that the three-person paramedic team entered the house with only a stethoscope and stayed for about 10 minutes. The team leader determined that medical assistance was not necessary based on what the lawsuit says was an inadequate medical examination and a failure to diagnose the little girl’s health problems. 

If the first EMS crew had taken Stephens to the hospital she probably would have survived, according to allegations raised in the complaint. The lawsuit includes charges of medical malpractice, and wrongful death, and calls for compensation for loss of future earnings and companionship in excess of $5 million and also seeks punitive damages against the city and Geoffrey Mount-Varner, acting medical director for the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department. 

The senior paramedic involved in the incident is being investigated by D.C. police according to a report by MyFoxDC.com, but no charges have yet been filed. According to the lawsuit, the paramedic was previously demoted due to past problems, and D.C. Fire and EMS have had prior trouble getting its paramedics to pass training tests.