Ambulance company disputes Donna family's timeline of fatal runover

DONNA - Emergency medical service dispatch records released Tuesday contradict a family's claims that it took nearly two hours to transport their dying toddler to the hospital for treatment.

Local church pastor Rodrigo Samuel Medrano, 63, ran over 17-month-old Ania Lezith Juarez Sunday afternoon as he backed his Lincoln Town Car out of her family's driveway after a church service, according to authorities.

Ania's relatives said it took about 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive at the scene of the fatal runover in front of their home at 410 A. Alvarez Drive.

But dispatch records from Pro Medic EMS in San Juan - the emergency ambulance service that contracts with the city of Donna - show it took less than 10 minutes for an ambulance crew to arrive at the scene.

Donna police first received a call about the accident at 12:58 p.m. Sunday, Detective Ric Suarez said. One minute later, an officer arrived at the scene and called for an ambulance at 12:59 p.m.

The paramedics left a restaurant along Business 83 in Alamo where they were eating lunch at 1 p.m., said Juan Garcia, the paramedic who responded to the accident.

His ambulance arrived at the scene of the accident eight minutes later - on par with the company's maximum target arrival time - according to the company's dispatch records.

Paramedics worked on Ania at the scene for 12 minutes, then left for McAllen Medical Center, where they arrived at 1:33 p.m., records show. She was later declared dead there at the hospital, police said.

On Tuesday, Ania's aunt Esmeralda Olvera said she maintains it took emergency responders 45 minutes to arrive, and nearly another hour before they left for the hospital.

"She was crying and screaming, ‘Take her! Take her! Take her!'" Olvera said of her sister-in-law, Ania's mother, Claudia Hernandez.

"They never did. They never moved," Olvera said.

Jaime Solis, director of operations for Pro Medic EMS, said "there's been incidents where it seems like a minute is an eternity" when a family waits for an ambulance to arrive.

"I think that's what happened there with that family," he said.

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.