Daughter claims Buffalo’s neglect led to mother’s death in 2022 blizzard

Yolanda Ross said she believes her mother, Janet Gamblin, would be alive today if the City of Buffalo had been better prepared for the blizzard that paralyzed much of Western New York for more than 48 hours in December.

Gamblin, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and needed continuous oxygen, was denied when she asked first responders to take her to the hospital during the storm, according to Ross and other family members. She struggled for days to breathe in enough oxygen and died on Dec. 26 at age 71 in her second-floor apartment.

“She would have had a chance at living and still surviving if they had got her to the hospital,” Ross said. “My mother was literally begging for her life.”

Ross in March filed a notice of claim accusing the city of failing to respond properly to an emergency medical call, and she said she intends to follow up with a lawsuit in state Supreme Court.