Woman forcibly removed from hospital lays in parking lot for 18 minutes and later dies

[Contrary1]

"I can't breathe."



"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A woman who collapsed and later died after being forcibly removed from a Florida hospital lay in the parking lot beside a police officer's car for nearly 18 minutes before a doctor readmitted her, according to police dash-cam audio and video released on Wednesday.

Attorneys for the family of Barbara Dawson renewed their charges of negligence against Liberty Calhoun Hospital and Blountstown Police as multiple state agencies continue their investigation into Dawson's Dec. 21 death.

"We have heard that time and time again how everyone was acting with due speed to assist her. Now that we have that tape we know that is not true," attorney Darryl Parks said. "There was not deliberate speed and who was assessing her at the side of the car was inconsistent."

<snip>

The recording is roughly 2 ½-hours long, but only the first half covers what happened at the hospital. The recording begins with the officer arriving at the hospital. He enters the 57-year-old Dawson's hospital room and tries to persuade her to leave. The officer tells Angela Donar, who is Dawson's aunt and also in the room, "she can walk out peacefully or be arrested."

Dawson repeatedly replies, "I can't breathe." Her tone is panic-stricken..."

http://news.yahoo.com/attorneys-release-video-woman-died-outside-hospital-173633892.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. More here:

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/01/06/dash-cam-dawson-case-released-today/78347194/

And, guess what! She's black. What a surprise.

[valerief]

5. Of course, she's black. White supremacists would never do that to one of their own. nt

[malaise]

2. I don't know who is worse

the hospital or the police.

They are going to pay

[justiceischeap]

3. When the nurse agrees with the officer that she's just trying to get out of going to jail

that's worse because she made the assumption that this patient is not telling the truth and "acting out" just to get out of going to jail. I'm sure there are some people that try this but it's obvious that this patient knew there was something wrong and no one was listening.

[malaise]

4. They're both scumbags

Damn humans can be despicable - the lady was dying

[Lee-Lee]

13. Cops are not medical professionals, so when a medical professional says the person is faking

that is what they have to go with.

PD will be cleared- they had doctors and nurses saying there was nothing wrong with her and that they ordered her off the premises. The police can't force a doctor to examine a patient, and if they say she is trespassing then they have to remove her. Standard practice is if someone claims a medical issue you call EMS and let them check and maybe transport them to the ER, but this woman was at the ER and already cleared. You can't hold the PD responsible for not knowing more than the doctors about medical conditions.

I am curious how well know the woman was to the ER and if she had a long history of coming in. I did security in an ER off duty and the only times you saw them want someone removed from the facility was when it was a person with a known long history of faking symptoms for drug seeking who was getting belligerent when turned down. Otherwise seeing someone tossed out never happened- family members behaving badly yes, but not patients. But when the known problem drug seekers came in everyone in the ER was suspicious due to past history and I can see how that could impact judgement.

Gonna be interesting to see this play out in court.

[question everything]

6. This was horrible. I watched that clip

If someone says "I cannot breath" (as was with the police in New York who chock held someone) you are supposed to stop what you are doing and see what is wrong.

Why is this so difficult to explain to all public employees?

[HereSince1628]

12. But, but, police 'KNOW' if you are talking you -are- breathing

What the special cop knowledge did is get in the way of the fact that when a person says "I can't breath" they usually actually mean they are having difficulty with their breathing.

IMO this is one of the classic difficulties with conservative cognition. Conservative 'learns' a truthiness -talking involves breathing- and thereby the conservative has no capacity to consider that when people talk they often don't accurately convey what they mean.

That special knowledge thingy is dangerous. It's why cops 'justifiably' end up responsible for 10% of American gun homicides. And it's why a person believed by a cop to be mentally disordered is 16 times more likely to be shot by a cop than a person the cop doesn't consider mentally ill.

That conservative cognition thing is also dangerous because it places statements of 'authority' figures above common sense and subverts critical thinking. Drs/hospital admin says patient -must- leave. Conservative thinking cop accepts that as god's truth without any doubt. Consequence is woman feeling respiratory distress dies.

[csziggy]

7. What really pissed me off was when the hospital personnel told her

She could just go to another facility. It's an hour to the next closest hospital! She probably wouldn't have made it there alive.

Any medical facility that isolated should be absolutely sure that a patient is NOT in imminent danger of dying before they kick them out or have them hauled out by police. While it might be satisfying to say that the hospital that did this all that would do is make medical care even less accessible for the people in that area.

[Contrary1]

9. The hospital tried to discharge my mother when she was dying too...

I had taken her to her heart "specialist" earlier in the week. Nothing wrong, he said. The asshole took me out of the exam room to tell me that "Older people, especially women tend to whine a lot".

Two days later I called her primary physician to tell him that she was dying. He told me to take her to the emergency room, and explain to them in detail what her complaint was.

They didn't want to admit her, because the doctor hadn't called ahead of time to let them know she was coming, which of course was bullshit. After arguing with the staff for 20 minutes, they agreed to check her out.

Guess what? Nothing wrong, they said. I could take her home.

I then told them that she wasn't leaving, that they would find a bed for her, and that I would be staying to make sure they didn't send her home in a taxi. I'm surprised they didn't call the police on me, as I was agitated, and getting quite loud. They admitted her.

Her heart doctors were called in, and supposedly ran a couple tests. Nope...still couldn't find anything. Meanwhile, her condition was deteriorating.

And so, on the third day, an internist was summoned. He ran one test, and found out what all her "whining" had been about. She had an aortic aneurysm that was actually bigger than the heart itself.

We were informed that she could die at any time, but by then she was too weak for surgery. We held our breath. Three days later, she was a bit stronger, and they decided not to wait. The surgeon was noticeably shaken when he came out to talk to us. He said it was the largest aneurysm he had ever seen.

She survived the surgery, but it shut down her kidneys. Her cause of death was stroke, brought on by the dialysis she endured for the next two years.

Here's the real kicker...my sister-in-law was in charge of this hospital's cafeteria. Later, on the same day of Mom's surgery, she was told to set up refreshments for a private meeting.

She was there when they arrived...every single one of the heart doctors who could find nothing wrong, along with the head of cardiology, and a couple of men in nice suits. We figure they were getting their stories straight in case there was a lawsuit.

[pnwmom]

11. What an awful way to lose your mother. I'm so sorry!

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. Kick

[Atman]

10. "In today's Florida news..."

Dear lord...I used to be so proud to call Florida home. These days I brag that I left a long time ago.

[WinkyDink]

14. Guess the state........Never mind.

[BooScout]

15. OMG!

I am so freaking glad I moved to the UK ten years ago. This was criminal what they did to this poor woman!