Anthony and Rachel Modrow face up to a decade behind bars (Picture: Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
A girl was left brain dead after her parents allegedly failed to call an ambulance and instead ran her a bath when she suffered an asthma attack.
Amy Lynn Modrow, nine, began experiencing breathing difficulties while staying at a friend’s house in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in early February.
Anthony and Rachel Modrow, both 34, refused to seek medical treatment for their daughter even as she turned blue. It would take three hours for 911 to be called.
Now the parents face one count of second-degree manslaughter for the alleged neglect and endangerment of their child, Amy, who they called ‘chicken nugget’ according to her obituary.
Amy went to a sleepover at a friend’s house on February 9 and began to experience breathing difficulties at around 7am the following day.
The youngster told her friend’s mum that she only had her grandmother’s inhaler, charging documents filed Wednesday allege.
Amy loved wrestling, her mother said in a tribute (Picture: Facebook)
Inhalers are often prescribed based on individual needs, and the mum said Amy’s grandmother’s one was doing little to curb the attack.
The mum called Anthony who according to the charges sighed as she handed the phone to Rachel who asked for Amy to be taken home.
She had to stress to Rachel that Amy was not faking the attack and offered to take her to the doctors, but the Modrows declined this offer, according to the charges.
At 10am, Amy’s aunt phoned a family friend explaining the situation, the Star Tribune reported.
Arriving at the Modrow home on Westbrooke Way, the family friend found Amy’s skin had turned blue, she struggled to raise her hands and she was crying.
Rachel had allegedly gone to run a steam bath for Amy while Anthony didn’t refill her asthma even as the family friend insisted the girl receive medical attention.
The family friend took Amy out of the house and phoned 911 at 10.40am some three hours after Amy’s flare-up began, phone logs showed.
Anthony allegedly failed to refill his daughter’s inhaler (Picture: Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
Medical experts said that the bath Rachel ran to help her daughter is not a recognised treatment for asthma (Picture: Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
If not treated, severe asthma attacks can last for several hours and it’s recommended to call emergency services if a flare-up lasts longer than several seconds after taking 10 inhaler puffs.
Police and medics could not find a pulse. Amy was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center and declared brain dead due to a lack of oxygen on February 17.
A person who is brain dead is legally confirmed as dead, with doctors seeing no chance of recovery as they cannot survive without life-support.
Doctors told investigators that Amy would have had a ‘much better chance to survive with earlier medical intervention’, the charging papers said.
A steam bath is not a recognised form of medical treatment for asthma, nor is using someone else’s prescribed inhaler, they added.
Five days before Amy was declared dead, Anthony created a fundraising page on GoFundMe to help cover medical bills.
Sharing the page on X, Rachel said: ‘My children [sic] is fighting for her life after a severe asthma attack. Help us.’
Rachel tagged professional wrestler Rebecca Quinn in a second post following Amy’s death and said: ‘My nine-year-old just passed away, she was one of your biggest fans.
‘You made such a impact on her. You were her hero.’
Anthony added on Facebook: ‘It’s official Amy hasn’t had any sedation and hasn’t woke up. She is brain-dead.
‘They giving her till Sunday for organ donation. I need to go home hurts so much. I said goodbye.’
The GoFundMe, later named ‘Helping Amy Modrow with Funeral costs,’ reportedly raised nearly $10,000 before it was removed.
Rachel and Anthony face up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted.
They were taken to Hennepin County jail on Wednesday and appeared in court the following day.
Hennepin County Public Defender Tanya Bishop at Anthony told the court: ‘On the face of this, it looks like the line between the accident and charges is very fine.
‘Of course, if he could go back in time there could be other steps he took to avoid this, but we’re here now.;
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.