Charges: Parents of Hopkins girl who died after asthma attack waited hours to bring her to hospital

A couple from Hopkins is now facing charges in connection to the death of their 9-year-old daughter earlier this year.

Anthony and Rachel Modrow, both 34, are each charged with second-degree manslaughter after failing to take their daughter to a hospital for several hours when she experienced an asthma attack.

Charging documents filed Wednesday state that the girl had gone to a friend’s home for a sleepover on Feb. 9. She initially reported not feeling well and, at around 7 a.m. the next morning, her friend told her mother that the girl was having an asthma attack with “heavy or fast” breathing. The mother also noticed that the girl was using an inhaler with her grandmother’s name on it instead of her own and the girl said she was using her grandmother’s inhaler because her parents didn’t have a vehicle.

The friend’s mother then called the girl’s father, Anthony Modrow, to explain the situation. The complaint states that he sighed and handed the phone to Rachel Modrow, who asked the woman to bring their daughter back home, refusing the woman’s offer to take the girl to a doctor.

The woman later told police the girl was wheezing, breathing heavily and asking to go to a doctor when she dropped the girl back off with the Modrows, adding that Anthony made no attempt to help the girl when she got home, despite the fact that she could barely walk at that point. That was at around 7:30 a.m.

The girl was eventually taken to a hospital, arriving at 10:57 a.m. on Feb. 10, about 3½ hours later. She was kept in the intensive care unit but was pronounced brain dead on Feb. 17 due to a loss of oxygen related to the asthma attack.

Anthony Modrow later said the girl’s asthma issues started two days earlier, on Feb. 8, but she started feeling better before going to her friend’s house, a complaint states. He admitted that her rescue inhaler was empty for a month and they never refilled it, and said the girl was wheezing, unable to breathe and crying when she got home on Feb. 10 but they tried home remedies like a steam bath before going to a hospital.

Rachel Modrow told police that a family friend tried to help them stabilize the girl, adding that they didn’t want to call an ambulance because they could drive her to a hospital themselves.

The complaint states that they didn’t call 911 until 10:39 a.m. on Feb. 10 and arrived at the hospital 18 minutes later.

Multiple doctors talked with investigators and said the girl would’ve had a “much better chance to survive with earlier medical intervention,” the charging documents state. They also note that doctors stressed how important early intervention is for asthma while adding that a steam bath isn’t a recognized treatment, nor is using another person’s inhaler.

The Modrows were booked into jail on Wednesday morning. They each face up to 10 years in jail.