City officials said this afternoon they will appeal an arbiter’s decision to reinstate a Pittsburgh paramedic who was fired after she said she wouldn’t be “waiting all day” for a dying 911 caller to walk from his home to her ambulance.
The appeal means Josie Dimon, will remain off the job for now. Dimon, an 11-year veteran who had been acting crew chief of the unit Medic 8 during the 2010 blizzard, was fired last spring in connection with the death of Curtis Mitchell. The Hazelwood resident died a year ago this month while waiting 30 hours for help.
An arbitrator reversed the city’s decision to fire Dimon, who said on a recorded phone call, “This ain’t no cab service” as she waited near Mitchell’s home.
Only a three-day suspension will go on her record, and she’ll get back pay for a year off the job, city officials announced at a press conference this afternoon.
“But just the basic inhumanity that this paramedic exhibited, it’s hard for me to understand how she can be not punished in some way for that conduct to another human being,” said Alan H. Perer, one of three attorneys representing Mitchell’s family in lawsuits against the city, Dimon and several other defendants.
