A federal judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a civil rights lawsuit brought by the daughter of a woman who died following a Philadelphia EMS response in 2024. The suit was brought by Shedira Wilson, as administratrix of the estate of her mother, Armada Wilson. It named the City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Fire Department EMTs Emily Klenk and Dylan Trost.

According to the complaint, Armada Wilson began having difficulty breathing on the morning of February 13, 2024. She asked her granddaughter, Nahijah Wilson, to call 911. Nahijah Wilson made the first call at approximately 11:00 a.m., followed by two additional calls at five-minute intervals.

EMTs Klenk and Trost arrived at approximately 11:20 a.m. The complaint alleged that they parked around the corner from the residence and walked down the block carrying only a small transport chair. When they entered the home, Armada Wilson was reportedly awake, alert and able to converse.

The complaint alleged that EMT Klenk did not initially question Armada Wilson about her condition or assess her vital signs. Instead, she asked about Wilson’s oxygen tank and the length of its cord. An argument developed between EMT Klenk and Nahijah Wilson over the care being provided.

Armada Wilson reportedly told the EMTs that she believed she would die unless she received appropriate medical care. The complaint alleged that the EMTs began moving her approximately ten minutes after entering the home.

While the EMTs were securing Wilson to the transport chair, she reportedly began bleeding from her mouth, lost control of her bladder and became unresponsive. Video footage allegedly showed her being taken to the ambulance loosely secured in the chair, with one leg unsecured.

Shedira Wilson, who was not initially at the residence, called 911 herself after receiving updates from Nahijah Wilson. Additional police and fire personnel arrived before she reached the scene. When she arrived at approximately 11:45 a.m., she observed two firefighters performing CPR on her mother in the rear of the ambulance.

Armada Wilson was transported to Jefferson Hospital, where she was intubated and diagnosed with a collapsed lung and pneumothorax. She remained in a coma until the family decided to discontinue life-sustaining measures. She died on February 19, 2024.

The complaint alleged that medical professionals attributed her death to oxygen deprivation to the brain caused by the delay in receiving appropriate medical care. It also accused EMTs Klenk and Trost of preparing an inaccurate run report and accused EMT Klenk of filing a false police report claiming that Nahijah Wilson assaulted her.

Wilson’s estate asserted that the EMTs violated the Fourteenth Amendment under a legal theory known as the state-created danger doctrine. That doctrine applies when government officials use their authority to create a danger or make someone more vulnerable to a danger than the person would have been had the government never intervened. As explained by the court:

• There is no constitutional right to emergency services, nor any constitutional obligation to affirmatively protect people from private harms. But the state may be on the hook when it creates the danger in the first place.

The court concluded that the allegations could support a finding that the EMTs acted with the level of culpability required for a state-created danger claim. The court explained:

• Several of the allegations—the EMTs’ approaching the patient’s home with no urgency, engaging the patient’s granddaughter in an altercation, filing a false police report following the altercation, and transporting the patient without properly securing her leg—suggest the EMTs “purposely delay[ed] their rescue efforts” and “act[ed] in an otherwise outrageous manner.”

However, the court concluded that the estate could not satisfy one of the elements of the state-created danger doctrine: an affirmative act by the EMTs that left Armada Wilson worse off than she would have been had they never responded.

Most of the conduct identified in the complaint involved alleged failures to act, including failures to bring equipment, assess Wilson’s condition, take vital signs, request additional help and provide treatment. The court held that a failure to act, standing alone, is not an affirmative act for purposes of a state-created danger claim.

The inaccurate run report and allegedly false police report were affirmative acts, but the court found that neither prevented Armada Wilson or her family from seeking other assistance.

The act of placing Wilson in the transport chair and moving her to the ambulance also qualified as affirmative conduct. However, the complaint did not allege that moving her in the chair caused or worsened her medical condition. Nor did the EMTs prevent the family from seeking alternative help. Shedira Wilson was able to make another 911 call, and additional fire and police personnel responded.

As the court explained:

• The crux of Ms. Wilson’s complaint is not that the state threw Ms. Wilson into the “snake pit,” but that it failed to rescue her from it when she called.
• But the state is not constitutionally required to provide rescue services at all, much less competent rescue services voluntarily undertaken.

The court then granted the motion to dismiss and dismissed the claims without prejudice.