A Florida woman claims she lost her daughter to a stroke just days after she had given birth to her third child because paramedics who responded to her 911 call informed them the patient could not afford an ambulance ride.

Nicole Benhamou, 53, told local news outlets that Hillsborough County first responders failed to check her daughter's vital signs and wasted 10 minutes talking about the cost of the transport. In the end, Benhamou ended up driving her daughter, 30-year-old Crystal Galloway, to a nearby hospital herself.

Galloway died at Tampa General Hospital five days later, just three days shy of her 31st birthday, and less than two weeks after undergoing a Caesarean section to give birth to her son, Jacob.

Crystal Galloway, 30, is pictured left on Mother's Day with her youngest daughter, aged 7. Just days after delivering her third child, a son, in late June, she suffered a stroke

Nicole Benhamou, 53 (right), says she had to take her daughter (left) to the hospital herself after paramedics told her the family could not afford the high cost of an ambulance ride

On Friday, the four Hillsborough County Fire Rescue paramedics who responded to Galloway's condominium - and who according to Benhamou convinced her to take her daughter to the hospital herself because of the prohibitive cost of an ambulance ride - were suspended with pay.

The decision was announced on Monday by Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill, who conceded that the paramedics failed to provide adequate care to Galloway, according to Tampa Bay Times.

‘I deeply regret that this has happened and clearly this is unacceptable,’ Merrill said.

According to Benhamou, her daughter had not been feeling well since delivering her son in late June via C-section. Galloway also has a 13-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old daughter.

In the early hours of July 4, Benhamou got a call from one of her grandkids telling her telling her that something was wrong with her mom.

Benhamou raced to Galloway’s condominium, located just a few doors down from her own house, and found the young mother-of-three slumped in the bathtub with her lips swollen and drooling from her mouth.

At first, Galloway was unresponsive. When she regained consciousness, she reportedly told her mother, 'Mommy, my head.'

Benhamou (left) says she felt stereotyped by the medics, who assumed that had no funds to pay for the transport, and they did not ask about their medical insurance. The medics did not even check Galloway's (right) vitals, despite a suspected stroke

Benhamou called 911 and at around 3am two deputies from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the scene, followed by the four paramedics from Fire Rescue.

Benhamou would later tell county investigators that one of the deputies suggested that her daughter was possibly hungover and she should sleep it off.

According to the mother, the first responders told her they could not afford the ambulance ride to the nearby hospital, located just a few blocks away, which would have set them back at least $600.

Life cut short: Galloway had just graduated from college. Now, her mother is raising her three children

Benhamou told reporters she felt stereotyped by the paramedics.

‘They never asked us if we had insurance, which we do,’ she told ABC Action News. ‘The whole conversation as the EMS drivers put my child in my car was that was best for us because we couldn’t afford an ambulance. ‘My daughter begged for her life, she begged.’

The paramedics have disputed Benhamou’s version of events, claiming that the mother told them she would rather take her daughter to the hospital herself.

The Fire Rescue personnel eventually carried Galloway down three flights of stairs and placed her in her mother's car.

Benhamou transported her daughter to Brandon Regional Hospital, where a CT scan showed that the new mom had bleeding on her brain. She was airlifted by helicopter to the hospital in Tampa, where she fell into a coma and died five days later.

‘She passed away before her baby's umbilical cord dropped off,’ said Benhamou of her daughter, whom she described as a recent college graduate who had her whole life ahead of her.

Three days later, county officials launched an integration into the paramedics' handling of the medical emergency, which has revealed that they failed to measure the patient's blood pressure and temperature, even though the 911 call was classified as a possible stroke case.

Benhamou is pictured with her three orphaned grandchildren, ranging in age from less than two weeks to 13 years

The county employees also failed to get the patient or her mother to sign an informed consent form confirming she was declining medical attention, and later logged the call as ‘non-transport/patient not found,’ which investigators characterized as a falsification of records.

‘I cannot trust these individuals to work under my medical license,’ Fire Rescue Medical Director Michael Lozano said in a statement read by Merrill on Monday. ‘I feel they do not meet the minimum standards set by myself and the department.’

The four suspended medics were named as Lt. John ‘Mike’ Morris, 36; Fire Medic Justin Sweeney, 36; Fire Medic Andrew Martin, 28, and acting Lt. Cortney Barton, 38.

All four are scheduled to appear at a disciplinary hearing on July 31.

Meanwhile, Benhamou has hired an attorney and is weighing her legal options. The 53-year-old is now raising her daughter’s three children, including her new-born grandson.