NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The mother of a 32-year-old man, who was left to die by paramedics last month, is speaking out for the first time.
Juanita King wants answers from Metro about why an ambulance did not immediately take her son to the hospital.
"I pray that no one else has to go through what our son went through," King said.
Paramedics arrived at Antonio Foster's townhouse in Hermitage a little after 3 a.m. on August 13. Foster's roommate called 911 and said that Foster had shot himself in the head.
Forty minutes after arriving, paramedics recorded that Foster's injuries were, "not compatible with life," and left -- even though Foster was still breathing.
"They left a human being there to suffer," King said. "He was struggling to breath, struggling for life."
Police still on the scene were so disturbed, they called their sergeant at home. He called the paramedics back, and Foster was finally taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center more than two hours after the 911 call came in.
He survived until later that afternoon.
"He's incompatible with life? He's going to die anyway is what they are saying," King said.
"Our son was loved. He shouldn't have went [sic] through what he went through. He was a man. He was someone's son," King said.
King works in a mental health office and said she had no idea her son was suicidal.
"He loved to cook. He loved to be around family. He loved to eat," King remembered as she looked at old pictures.
But the trauma of his death has been compounded by thoughts of her son's suffering.
The Metro Fire Department put all eight fire department employees who responded the call on administrative leave immediately after it happened.
All were cleared of any wrong doing and have returned to work.
Vanderbilt took responsibility for the medical decisions in Foster's case. Paramedics apparently listened to a doctor who told them not to bring Foster to the hospital.
"There's no question that patient should have been transported," Dr. Corey Slovis said in an interview last month.
Slovis is Chairman of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt and also the Medical Director for the Metro Nashville Fire Department.
"He was still breathing, still struggling to breath," King said. "Now that is awful to put somebody through something like that."
King wants to hear the radio conversation between paramedics and the Vanderbilt doctor.
"I want them to release it. I give them permission to release it. His family and loved ones want to know what happened that night," King said.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked for the radio traffic, but so far Metro has refused to release it, calling it protected medical information.
King has hired a lawyer to help her get answers.
