Three more charged in case of 911 operator allegedly failing to send ambulance to dying woman’s rural home

A Pennsylvania 911 operator was charged earlier this month with involuntary manslaughter after he didn’t send an ambulance to the rural home of a woman who died of internal bleeding a day later

Kelly Tichenell, right, and her mother, Diania Kronk, left, in an undated photo. Ms Kronk died after she was allegedly emergency services by a 911 dispatcher in Pennsylvania (Kelly Tichenell)

Authorities have charged three more people in connection with the 911 operator who allegedly failed to dispatch an ambulance to a Pennsylvania woman who required medical attention in 2020 and later died.

A Greene County detective filed a rare charge of involuntary manslaughter against Leon “Lee” Price, 50, of Waynesburg, earlier this month in connection with the July 2020 death of Diania Kronk, 54.

Following the announcement of the charges filed against Mr Price, three more individuals were reportedly charged on Monday with tampering of public records, fabricating evidence and obstruction, according to a criminal complaint viewed by the Associated Press.

All three men are, or were, managers for Greene County’s emergency management, the same place where Mr Price was employed when he took the call from Kronk’s daughter, Kelly Titchenell, back in 2020.

“I believe she would be alive today if they would have sent an ambulance,” said Ms Titchenell, 38, in an interview with the Associated Press.

In the charging documents, prosecutors contend that the three managers didn’t have policy memo binders on hand in the office that would’ve detailed the standard operating procedures for when emergency calls are placed.

The criminal complaint details how the three man allegedly conspired to “knowingly and purposefully conceal, withhold, omit, obstruct or pervert the release of documents” from investigators.

During the course of the four-minute July 2020 call, Mr Price repeatedly questioned Ms Titchenell about whether her mother would actually go in an ambulance if it was sent to the 54-year-old’s home in rural Pennsylvania.

Mr Price specifically asks if she was “willing to go” to the hospital, located approximately 30 minutes away from where Kronk was living in Sycamore.

“She will be, ‘cause I’m on my way there, so she’s going, or she’s going to die,” Ms Titchenell reportedly told the 911 dispatcher as she made her way to her mother’s place from her home in Mather, about 20 minutes away by car.

The dispatcher then asked that the daughter call 911 back when she arrived at her mother’s home, where she would be able to confirm if the 54-year-old was indeed willing to go to the hospital.

Ms Titchenell arrived at the home to find her mother unrobed and speaking incoherently. She was unable to call the emergency services from the rural home, however, as she couldn’t locate her mother’s landline and because of its location, she also had no cell phone service.

She returned home, assuming that her uncle would check-in on her mother after she left, and believing that any future attempts to dial 911 again from her home would be fruitless.

“This is unheard of, to me. I mean, they’ll send an ambulance for anything,” Ms Titchenell said. “And here I am telling this guy that my mom’s going to die. It’s, like, her death, and she doesn’t get an ambulance.”

The next day the 54-year-old mother was found dead by Ms Titchenell’s brother.

“We all deserve equal protections, and we all deserve access to medical services,” said the prosecutor, Greene County District Attorney Dave Russo, in an interview with The Associated Press. “I have a major concern as to the safety of the community in regards to this.”

Mr Price was arraigned June 29 and released on bail.