(THE FEDERALIST) – On June 24, 2017, Emery Finnefrock lived for 45 minutes after he was born at 22 weeks and 5 days gestation, and received no neonatal intensive care or treatment. His twin brother, Elliot Finnefrock, was born shortly after and lived for 2 hours and 30 minutes, breathing and crying as hospital staff again refused to provide treatment.
“Mommy tried … Mommy tried,” the boys mother, Amanda Finnefrock, is heard saying on a video capturing the moments post-delivery at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
According to existing federal law, treatment should have never been withheld from the twin boys. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) passed in 1984 guarantees an individual’s right to an appropriate medical screening examination and to either stabilizing treatment or an appropriate transfer. A Health and Human Services investigation of the Finnefrock twins’ case determined that Riverside staff violated EMTALA when they failed to conduct a screening to determine what treatment, if any, would be possible.