Women dies after being dragged from Hospital...

[HipChick]

What the hell is going on in America? I bet this was insurance related...




Anna Brown, 29, died on the floor of a jail cell within an hour of being dragged from St. Mary’s Hospital. As blood clots spread from her legs to her lungs the hospital staff was busy refusing her further treatment. She was arrested because she refused to leave, she said she was in to much pain to stand. So she was carried to a squad car and driven to the Richmond Heights Police Department where officers carried her into a cell and laid her on the floor. She was found dead only minutes later.

Originally visiting the hospital due to a sprained ankle, she was unaware that the real problem was that her sprained ankle had caused blood clots. A doctor at St. Mary’s told police that she was okay to go, unwilling to properly treat the woman. At 7:33 in the video below, you can hear an officer in the cell after she died say, “we thought she was drug sick” but the autopsy revealed that she had not taken any drugs.

http://youthrevolutionarycouncil.org/?p=1073

[MADem]

1. EDIT--link isn't working. That's ghastly. nt

[pokerfan]

10. Try this link

http://tinyurl.com/7yj7gf9

Disgusting.

[MADem]

16. OMG, so young and beautiful.

How horrible.

[nanabugg]

152. I didn't have to click on the link to know she was black. So sad.

Yeah! I'm playing the race card...because they are the only cards in the deck!

[CanonRay]

87. Too bad she wasn't an embryo

then she would have been protected. I'm seriously considering leaving this country.

[mmonk]

92. +1

[pacalo]

12. I got a bad link the first time but it worked when I re-clicked on it.

[MADem]

17. The second link provided did the trick. What a terrible story. nt

[pacalo]

22. I'm glad you got to see it.

The deputies were carrying her by her ankles.

[ellisonz]

14. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Woman unhappy with care at St. Mary's hospital is arrested for trespassing, dies in jail
BY CHRISTINE BYERS • [e-mail] > 314-340-8087 | Posted: Sunday, March 25, 2012 12:15

RICHMOND HEIGHTS • Anna Brown wasn't leaving the emergency room quietly.

She yelled from a wheelchair at St. Mary's Health Center security personnel and Richmond Heights police officers that her legs hurt so badly she couldn't stand.

She had already been to two other hospitals that week in September, complaining of leg pain after spraining her ankle.

This time, she refused to leave.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ed640f3d-64a0-516c-88ff-fb770b5e9677.html#ixzz1qNkYnNLU

[CrispyQ]

2. Unbelievable.

"we thought she was drug sick"

So, if that had been the case, this woman didn't deserve medical care?

This country is seriously fucked up.

[awoke_in_2003]

73. +1. nt

[FarPoint]

3. She must of had an outstanding warrant...

Hospital officers are typically off duty cops who routinely run warrant checks on ER patients....then if they have a warrant; they get picked up and go to jail straight from the hospital. Many criminals know this and avoid ER's or use an alias name if they can.

[lunasun]

8. No read it again! "She was arrested because she refused to leave"

Not"they get picked up and go to jail straight from the hospital"...........

and she was not "drug sick" either as the cops thought!

[MADem]

19. No. The doc didn't properly check her and thought she was malingering. nt

[liberalhistorian]

25. See, this is what I don't understand and I don't

even have M.D. after my name. When you complain of leg pain the way she did, the first thing the medical professional should think of is blood clot, especially after an injury to the leg. That's so basic that I just don't understand how they couldn't have even thought of that and picked up on it. Especially since the poor woman couldn't even fucking walk, for God's sake!!! The doctors responsible should be sued into the next decade and suffer some serious professional consequences, up to and including license suspension or termination. Inexcusable negligence on their part.

What probably happened was that she didn't have insurance and they didn't give a shit and just wanted her to go away. I've been to ER's both insured and uninsured and the difference in attitude and treatment is astounding, like night and day. And it's only going to get worse as more people lose their insurance and are unable to afford any replacement.

[cynatnite]

28. They did ultrasound her legs...

I posted some articles below and in those it said as much. Of course, it will depend on how thorough of a job the tech did. That will have to be studied by other professionals.

Her medical records from all three hospitals she went to will get a thorough going over. This is not a simple case. She had a lot of problems prior to her death.

I have worked in ERs and been a patient in more than one as both insured and uninsured. I've taken my kids to more than one as well as my husband. I have never been in a bad ER.

I just hate to see people jumping the gun before they have all the facts.

[Evasporque]

91. DVT Is a big killer

Deep Vein Thrombosis is a killer.

Tragic consequences...and failure to look or acknowledge the signs of DVT (pain, swelling in extremities, bulging viens, higher than normal blood pressure)
That woman died a horrible death....as a clot exiting the leg will go to the lungs and those are killers. Blood backs up in the heart and the heart cramps up, but not before a period of agonizing pain, gasping for breath, sweating, suffocating and finally collapse....

[OVERPAID01]

71. You are right about that.

I went to the hospital with a 103 temperature and no insurance, and the hospital checked me in for 6 hours, ran blood tests and found nothing. They tried to send me home with a fever that had climbed to 105 after being on an iced bed with intavenous fluids the whole time (turned out i had a strep infection of the lungs). When the staff threatened to have me physically removed, my friend told me we had to go, I was out of it due to the high temperature, and I suggested we go to another hospital. I then asked for the doctor's name that was releasing me, and told him, i may not be able to afford a health insurance plan but I can certainly get legal representation if another doctor at a different hospital finds out what is causing my illness. Needless to say I got a bed and a chest xray that showed that I had pneumonia in both lungs. Never got a bill or any acknowledgement that I was ever in the hospital...

[BlancheSplanchnik]

95. And HERE is the Difference, that saved you and killed her.....

You understand the system enough to make a valid threat.

That poor woman did not have the sophistication that you have, and so her cries went right down the drain.

With no insurance, hospitals treat you like crap and want to get rid of you. If you are alone, can't speak up for yourself effectively or at all, are uneducated....any number of variables can put you in a vulnerable position, and with relentless crowds of people needing to be tended to, service workers everywhere are underpaid and overwhelmed.....healthcare for profit is an effective excuse to reduce the workload. Just kick the "malingerers" in the ass and ut the door they go==somebody ELSE'S problem

[Texasgal]

111. Sorry.. that's bullshit

I worked triage as an RN for ten years and we never checked a warrant.

Your post is bullshit.

[Marrah_G]

4. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[uppityperson]

5. I read some on this story yesterday. She had had tests that didn't show anything, was discharged.

went to another hospital, oh I can't remember all the details but it wasn't that simple as simply kicking her out.

It is very much not good, but not that simple.

[me b zola]

49. I don't think they would have released dick cheney

We deserve to be treated as well.

[dana_b]

6. she was complaining that she couldn't

walk so they grabbed her from the car and left her on the cold jail floor to die. heartless and sick!!

[pacalo]

11. Between two available beds!

[HiPointDem]

121. THAT is why I registered here. To me that was the final indignity.

EVEN IF she was everything they believed her to be: indigent, crazy, drug-addicted and malingering -- there was NO REASON to leave her laying on the floor. It showed all too clearly that in their eyes she was GARBAGE without any humanity whatsoever & that they considered her so far below them they didn't even need to perform the very simple acknowledgement of her humanity -- putting her in a bed instead of on the floor.

I couldn't believe that. It made me cry. All the more as over the years I have come to understand that this kind of treatment is to be expected if you are a member of certain groups if you make any kind of noise or complaint at all or do anything less than kiss the asses of your "superiors".

She had not hurt her anyone, just inconvenienced them. A criminal act if you are on the margins of society.

[The Midway Rebel]

139. Welcome to DU!

[pacalo]

147. That was beautifully said & that speaks for my feelings about it, too.

I just posted in another thread about police officers who were caught on audio through a cellphone behaving with a callous disrespect & disregard for a senior citizen, not because she did anything wrong other than having wrecked her car on an embankment, but a distressed citizen who needed their help.

Interesting story/audio link here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002484073#post59


/edited to add, welcome to DU!

[HiPointDem]

153. I read that one too, and heard the woman crying at the end. A FELONY, they charged her with.

And criminals in suits run free. They are never asked to take "responsibility" for their crap. There is a cause and effect here. The richer, the poorer. The more immune from "responsibility," the more vulnerable to abuse of power. Shit flows down, always, but the more the top is shielded the more the bottom is degraded and abused.

I am impressed that the woman from Geico stayed on the line and kept her cool. That was way above and beyond for a service rep. I'd like to shake her hand.

[Confusious]

7. So much for the "emergency room" argument. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Malpractice and a lawsuit to the police department?

Our social networks have lost their ability to express compassion. Poor thing.

[MADem]

21. Can't fault the police. The hospital, though? I think yes.

She had clots in her legs, and could not stand.

The hospital must have told the police she was malingering in addition to tresspassing. The police can't be doctors, but they can certainly take the word of "medical professionals."

I think the fault lies with the doctors who didn't LISTEN to the patient crying out for help.

[liberalhistorian]

29. The fact that she was screaming in pain and

couldn't walk should have clued the cops that something was amiss. Of course, the catchall "drug" bullshit was a perfect excuse for them not to have to do anything.

[MADem]

33. A doctor told them she was trespassing and that there was nothing wrong with her.

The cops probably thought she was "acting" based on the statements of the medical people who called them and said "Get this trespasser out of here."

I can't fault the police. If you can't trust the word of medical people in a hospital setting, who can you trust?

[me b zola]

52. Did the crappy dr's make the police treat her like an animal?

Did the doctors make the police drag her by her ankles? put her on the floor?

[MADem]

67. The doctors told the police this woman, with no drugs in her system, was a "drug seeker."

They set the stage for the assumption by the police that the woman was malingering in order to gain access to drugs. The doctor signed the "fit for confinement" order and handed the woman over to the police.

I blame the doctor who released a young woman to the police. The police were acting in good faith, and tried to revive her when they realized she was dead. She'd been in the jail less than a half hour--surely the DOCTOR should have seen that the woman was having trouble.

[me b zola]

80. In civilized nations

The police do not treat human beings this way, even if they are on drugs.

I don't just blame the doctor, whom i also hold accountable, but i blame our lack of a health care system. She wasn't treated properly because she was on medicade. As long as there is profit in our health care delivery system, people will continue to be discharged and be refused treatment when it is not cost effective.

I blame us as a people for allowing our health care to be privatized and treated as a comodity instead of a basic human right.

[MADem]

110. I don't know what kind of medical coverage she had.

The bottom line is this--it needn't have happened, and that doctor should have LISTENED TO his or her patient. When someone says they are in pain, it's not smart to say "Fuck you, no you're not. I'm calling the cops to drag your drug-seeking ass to jail." There was no effort to hear what she was saying.

I don't blame "us as people" though, for this tragedy. I didn't deny this woman insurance, and neither did anyone I know. I think everyone in the entire world should have affordable access to health care--I really don't give a shit how it is delivered, either, so long as it doesn't bankrupt people to get it. I'm not the Borg Of Congress, and I can't make law with the wave of a hand. I'm not the Borg of the Supreme Court either, though I wish I were.

Our health care has ALWAYS been "privatized," from the days of physicians bleeding people with leeches in barber shops, to the town or village doctor making house calls in his horse-n-carriage. We have had safety net programs down the years, but they usually have been limited to special groups or the least of the brethren. The challenge is to make it an inclusive thing for all citizens--and that's what the Supremes are going to decide, either for or against.

I've also been in a number of "civilized nations" that have police departments that suck pretty bad, too. Just because they don't speak English doesn't make them all that charming. You should see the Japanese cops take down someone who is a problem--they don't do a lot of talking, and they don't spare the rod (or the portable aluminum truncheon). Here's a "drag 'em by the hair" arrest:

How about Canada? They'd never do anything "wrong," would they? Here they kick the crap out of a guy they already have under control:

&feature=related

"Civilized" France, maybe? Watch them arrest a bunch of African protesters:

Point is, it's everywhere. You can say "such and such" country would "never" do such a thing--but odds are, they would.

[DiverDave]

159. "Good faith"??

throwing her on the floor is "good faith"??
I will bet 50 bucks they treat injured dogs better then they did this woman.
Good faith my ass.

[HiPointDem]

160. The principle being that the police have the right to treat malingerers and drug seekers who

committed no actual crime except saying they couldn't walk and needed medical treatment worse than dogs. People have no qualms about that. That's OK, A DOCTOR SAID SO!!!

It's infuriating that people don't see anything wrong with that.

Even if she had been everything they thought she was, the way they treated her was wrong.

[MADem]

162. They didn't "throw," they placed her.

And they were acting on information--that this woman was a lying, 'fit for confinement,' drug seeking druggie--that they got from the doctor.

This woman would NEVER have even been IN that jail if the doctor hadn't called the cops and told them to haul her "trespassing," "lying" and "drug seeking" ass away.

The doctor sent this woman off to die, and used the police to do his/her dirty work.

[DiverDave]

167. Oh, sure they gently placed her

on the floor.
They threw her down and left her to die.
If they had any heart at ALL they would have AT LEAST put
her on the bed.
But,to them she is not human, less then human.
I hope there is a hell, these asshole belong there.

[MADem]

69. The doctors painted her as a lying malingering drug seeker.

Did you see the video? It's obvious that the police are reacting to the woman based on information that the doctor gave them. They weren't told that this woman was seriously ill, they were told she was a faker looking for drugs and refusing to leave. They were predisposed to believe she was an obstreperous liar, because that's basically what a doctor told them.

Police aren't Rhodes scholars. They are concrete thinkers. I don't think if they believed the woman was ill, was actually unable to walk (and not malingering like they were told) and was near death that they would have treated her like a drug-seeking faker. What would they gain from that? The conversation between the two police with the defillibrator, cited in a link on this thread, is telling--that conversation sounds to me like it is between two guys who are shocked at what happened.

[cstanleytech]

126. I dont have all the facts mind you but my initial opinion is that the doctor should lose his

license to practice medicine.

[MADem]

129. I think it was an egregious error and the doctor should be held responsible.

To what degree depends on how much 'due diligence' happened before the Bad Diagnosis.

How could it have hurt, even if they couldn't see those clots when they ran tests, to allow the woman to stay in the ER waiting room for observation? She was vociferous in her complaints that she was in pain, but no one seemed to get past "assuming" that she wanted drugs. I have to wonder if they'd asked her "Where are you feeling the pain?" and how long, and what quality of pain, etc., they may have realized that she wasn't bullshitting. I don't think anyone watched her try to walk, or anything like that--if they had, maybe they would have realized that she was in bad shape, really and truly, and wasn't faking it.

[Baitball Blogger]

58. You would think that the hospital could have confirmed she didn't have any drugs in her system.

[Art_from_Ark]

37. Can't fault the police? Really?

"She told officers she couldn't get out of the police car, so they dragged her by her arms into the station. They left her lying on the concrete floor of a jail cell, moaning and struggling to breathe. Just 15 minutes later, a jail worker found her cold to the touch."

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ed640f3d-64a0-516c-88ff-fb770b5e9677.html#ixzz1qNwpBTJa

[MADem]

43. She had JUST been released by the doctor, who said she was "fit for confinement."

You expect the cops to be doctors? She died inside of a half hour of arriving in that jail.


St. Mary's officials say they did all they were supposed to do for Brown. Richmond Heights police said they trusted a doctor who said she was fit for jail.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/woman-demanding-care-at-st-mary-s-hospital-is-arrested/article_ed640f3d-64a0-516c-88ff-fb770b5e9677.html#ixzz1qNzI2Ywd

[Art_from_Ark]

53. The woman was having trouble breathing. She was in pain.

The cops dragged her by her arms into the station. They left her on the floor of a cell. They didn't check up on her-- a jail worker did that 15 minutes later, and her body was ALREADY cold. Damn right I expect the cops to realize that something was wrong.

[MADem]

64. A doctor had "just"--I mean JUST--told them she was "fit for confinement."

The police are not doctors. They trusted the doctor who told them she was good to go. The doctor told the police she was a "drug seeker." They likely thought she was faking to get back to a medical facility to get drugs--that the doctor told them she was seeking.

The woman was dead within a half hour of arriving at the jail. It's not the fault of the police, it is the fault of the doctor who flung the poor woman at the police to get her out of the ER.

[Art_from_Ark]

83. The cops dragged her *by her arms* into the police station

The left her on the cold floor of the cell. They didn't check up on her. She died almost as soon as she was put in the cell, if she wasn't dead already, because her body was COLD within 15 minutes of entering the cell.

Would you still have that attitude about the behavior of the cops if someone in your family were treated like that?

[MADem]

119. I would be suing that hospital if she were my child or sister.

Read everything I have written in this thread.

Who didn't treat the woman for her illness? The hospital.

Who said she was a drug seeking malingerer? The doctor.

Who called the police and said "Arrest this woman?" The doctor.

Who provided the police with documentation that said the woman was "fit for confinement?" The doctor.

Why was the woman in the jail in the first place? Because the DOCTOR said she was TRESPASSING and called for her arrest.

There aren't beds and fluffy pillows in holding cells. There are cold metal bunks and cold concrete floors. Drunks and druggies are routinely left on the floor because that way they don't fall off the bunk and hit their heads. The police were told by a medical professional that this woman was a lying druggie. They didn't know her, or like her, or not like her. They were just transporting her because she was a trespasser in the ER, a drug seeker, a malingerer--as far as they knew, and that's what they were told by a DOCTOR. You're suggesting that the police should have more diagnostic expertise than a doctor who told them that she was fine to be taken into custody and placed in that holding cell.

Whatever.

When the police are assholes I do not hesitate to call them on it. In this case, though, a failure to diagnose and treat by a medical professional, an insistence by a doctor that he or she didn't want this woman in the ER, and a call by the doctor to the police to come and arrest the woman is what landed her on that floor in that cell. If the doctor had not done any of this, and even allowed her to stay in the waiting room of the ER, she would have been in the ER when she went into extremis.

[sabrina 1]

76. Don't they have minds of their own? The woman told them she was in too much pain to walk.

And decent human being would at least entertain the idea that maybe she wasn't lying. They were all too eager to believe she was a druggie pretending to be sick. Sorry, but they are adults. They did not have to take the word of the doctor once they had her in their care.

It is shameful how little we expect of those whose job it is to 'protect and serve'. We get what we deserve though. So long as our standards are so low that we excuse any grown up human being who treats a woman that way, that is how it will be.

I do not excuse them. They are symptom of this society. No one is expected to think, just follow orders. And when that is the way it is, this is the result. Too bad there was no one around who didn't think that the doctor was god.

[MADem]

122. They hear that shit all the time. Especially from "drug seekers."

See, that doctor set that woman up to die. She was already characterized as a liar who wanted drugs and was faking to get them, before the police even showed up at the ER and were even handed that "fit for confinement" (in other words, healthy and "good to go" to the holding cell where she would be placed under arrest) order.

Police interact regularly with prisoners who are faking in order to be transported to a place where they might be able to get drugs. They often go limp/get dramatic/scream-wail-cry and get dramatic. This isn't the first time the police have seen this kind of behavior, and they had no way to know that the woman wasn't lying. After all--the doctor had JUST told the police she was a lying druggie faker who was fine.

I blame the doctor.

[dkf]

156. Are doctors allowed to test everyone who complains of pain for drugs?

Isnt that an invasion of privacy?

[MADem]

157. I don't know but I doubt they would do that--it costs money.

They aren't going to spend money on a poorly-insured or uninsured person.

There are people here who have worked in ERs and in medicine. Maybe they will know.

[Crunchy Frog]

106. Yup. Nobody involved in this should be held accountable in any way. It was an act of God. n/t

[MADem]

117. WTF?

Where do you draw that conclusion?

I think the doctor who failed to treat the patient, who wrongly categorized her as a drug seeker, who ordered her arrest for trespassing, who called the police to come and arrest her, and who issued a fit for confinement order to the police, should be held accountable.

If you would read what people have to say instead of lecture with "I'm Too Cool" one liners in a snarky, no-conversation, self-important fashion, you'd perhaps see that. "Yup?" Or would it take an "Act of God" to encourage you to converse like a human instead of play a halfassed, immature game of "Nyah, Nyah, Gotcha--you're not Progressive Enough Because You Don't Agree With MEEEEEEE?"

[xtraxritical]

135. I'm really sure it's sarcastic without the "sarcasm" thingy.

[MADem]

144. Hard to tell! nt

[HiPointDem]

142. Generally speaking the "little people" are routinely called to be "accountable" for their errors.

Those in authorities, not so much. Shit flows down.

[Caretha]

112. Give it a break

I don't expect the police to be doctors - no one does. We expect them to be human. If you think that is impossible then your are truly as jaded as the cops were who left a young woman lying on a concrete floor.

Your arguments and excuses say a whole lot about the type of person you are, and the very low low expectations you have for humanity.

I truly pity you.

[MADem]

114. Why don't YOU?

Obviously, you expect the police to be something they aren't, because you are giving me attitude for pointing out the obvious. This woman was UNDER ARREST for TRESPASSING. She wasn't at the Police Medical Facility. She was in a holding tank. She was there because a DOCTOR denied her care, accused her of "drug seeking" and called the police and told them she was not welcome in the ER and she needed to be taken into custody. This doctor also gave the police a "fit for confinement" order.

You should spend some time in a holding facility and see why they put people on the floor instead of the metal bunks. See, the bunks are cold, and metal, and the drunks and druggies roll off them and hit their heads on the floor and hurt themselves. If someone wants to use the bunk, it's up to them to get on it and use it--not for the police to place them there and tuck them in (not that they give them any blankets or pillows, either).

Your attempt to make this about ME (making snarky accusations about the 'type of person you are' and 'low expectations you have for humanity') say a lot about YOU, now, don't they? Accusatory? Assuming? Makes conclusions without facts? How very shameful. You can't discuss the issue, so you fling shit at me--like that will help-- instead.


Heckuva job, there, Brownie. Don't pity me--save that for yourself, because you plainly are in need of it.

[Caretha]

116. As I said....

I truly pity you. You are ranting. Try listening to yourself. It might shock you if you really did. You seem to have no idea how you come across to other people.

[MADem]

120. And as I said, this isn't about ME, so try behaving like an adult and stop trying to make it thus.

And one more time, since you apparently didn't read it the first go-round: keep that pity for yourself--you really need it, if this is how you talk to people routinely--characterizing them because they don't see things "your" way.

If you think you're coming across like sweetness and light, I have a bridge for sale. Great price, too.

[HiPointDem]

124. I expect, as a minimum, that they would put her on the bed and not leave her laying on the floor.

[MADem]

127. Absolutely NOT.

You don't put a drunk or a druggie on a bunk...they aren't "beds"--they are cold metal shelves bolted to the wall. No pillow, no blanket, no mattress. Just metal. The police were told by the doctor that this woman was a "druggie."

They roll off and crack their heads on the concrete floor, and then you have to transport them back to the ER.

You put them on the floor, and if they want to use the bunk, they can get on it themselves, assuming they aren't too dizzy or messed up to stay on it.

Keep in mind the doctor told the police this woman was lying--that there was nothing wrong with her, that she was malingering, faking, drug seeking--the doctor even put in writing that she was "fit for confinement."

I keep saying it, I will say it again--I blame the doctor.

[HiPointDem]

132. It appears to me that there is a pad on the beds. It's a local jail, not a federal supermax prison.

The woman was responding rationally in the squad car. She asked the policeman if there was a wheelchair and she told him she couldn't stand up. The policeman ignored what she said.

She was not out of control or delusional. There was no reason to think she would roll of the bed.

The doctor did not say she was a "druggie". S/he said she was suspected of being "drug-seeking".

As Ms. Brown was responding normally in the squad car but died 15 minutes or less after the police carried her into jail by grabbing her ankles (the area she had been telling everyone she had pain in) and arms, I suspect it was that treatment that was the immediate precipitant of her death.

There is plenty of blame to go around.

[MADem]

138. If she was "drug seeking" she was by definition a "druggie"

People who go looking for drugs are doing it because they have an addiction and are starting to feel the twinges of withdrawal.

When people are "drug seeking" they often have difficulty as they withdraw. Just because the woman was "responding normally" in the car, that doesn't mean that her responses would be less "normal" (i.e., exhibiting the characteristics of someone withdrawing because they didn't have access to drugs) if she were in fact a druggie seeking drugs at the ER. The police had NO WAY TO KNOW. They had the word of the doctor and a "fit for confinement" order.

That is a nicer holding cell than most places, with the rubber/plastic covered mat on the bunk, but even at that, if she were on the cusp of withdrawing from drugs, she would still be at risk to fall off that bunk.

I still find the doctor at fault. The police were told -- in writing--that the woman was a drug seeker who was fit for confinement. I don't blame the police in this case--they were going on the information provided to them by the ER doctor; and believe me, if I felt they were at fault I would say so. I am not reluctant to point out police excess, I just do not see it in this circumstance. I just don't see how the police could know that she had blood clots, after a doctor said she was fine.

[HiPointDem]

146. I didn't say the police should have known she had blood clots. I said they treated her carelessly

and with indignity.

They ignored her lucid statements that she could not walk and needed a wheelchair.

They ordered her to walk, insisted that she walk.

When she would not follow their order they grabbed her by her ankles and arms.

She screamed in pain when they touched the legs that she had already told them were painful.

They carried her screaming in pain into the jail, where they put her on the floor and left her, moaning and dying.

Opiate withdrawal does not make one liable to lose consciousness and fall out of bed. It makes one sick as if with a very nasty virus that causes one to ache, puke and shit. There was no reason to put her on the floor. If they were so worried about her "imminent withdrawal" and falling out of bed they could have put one of those pads under her body.

They just didn't give a shit. She was not important enough to care about.

[MADem]

150. They had a "fit for confinement" order from a doctor who said she was a malingering trespasser.

What, after being told that, why should they assume she wasn't what the doctor said she was? A lying, faking druggie.

Would you have preferred they have gotten out the taser or cattle prod to move her along? Or let her sit in the car all night? Don't forget, now--the doctor said there was nothing wrong with her.


Remember, these police, who are NOT medical professionals, had the word of a DOCTOR who she was fine. She was, according to the doctor, a lying faker looking for drugs, but she was fine. Fit for confinement! Per the DOCTOR.

Why are you assuming that they thought she was on opiates? Why not meth? Speed? Coke? Any old You-Name-It Freaky Street drug?

You keep on about opiates, but they aren't the only game in town. And I haven't seen one single mention of them in any of these articles.

Why do you keep giving the doctor a pass? Had the doctor done his/her job, that woman would never have been shunted off to that jail so the police would take the blame in your eyes. She never would have even met those policemen or seen that holding cell, had the doctor not blown her off.

[Baitball Blogger]

59. Where was her family?

[MADem]

115. There are a lot of links to articles in this thread. Read them all and you'll see.

Very sad situation. She was homeless, her mother had the kids, there was a no contact order.

[suffragette]

77. A woman who clearly needed medical and mental health treatment is instead shunted to jail

There's so much wrong here.

She needed care. Not incarceration, not "confinement," but a simple human dose of decency, concern and compassion.

My heart aches after reading about this.

[MADem]

123. I agree. I think the doctor blew it. Completely.

Even if the doctor had left her in the ER waiting room for "observation" for a bit, she'd have had access to emergency care when she went into extremis. Instead, she was no where near the ER when she needed it, and it is because the doctor ordered her arrested and said she was healthy enough to be confined.

[Mojorabbit]

98. I can fault them for not putting her in a bed and instead leaving her on the floor. nt

[MADem]

105. I think the doctor convinced them that she was a malingerer and a "drug seeker."

They don't require police to be geniuses. Perhaps they should raise the intelligence standards before hiring them. They want authoritarian personalities who are concrete thinkers and who follow "regulations, rules, and procedures" readily. Not too sharp, not too dumb--people who don't think too much. Those guys who transported her have probably picked up dozens if not hundreds of people at the ER who, for whatever reasons, refused to leave and they probably had a very similar experience with those transports. They may have thought she was acting and trying to be dramatic.

If they required police to have medical degrees, maybe they'd shoot fewer people. I don't know. I do know, though, that police don't like paperwork or people dying in custody, so I do think that if they believed there was something direly wrong with the woman, they would have done something about it--not because of any merciful attitude, necessarily, but as a consequence of a desire to avoid bad publicity such as this is generating.

[Mojorabbit]

107. It is a human thing

I am a retired RN. I have in the day taken care of all sorts of people some who were dangerous but I never lost sight of basic human dignity and I would have never ever left someone on the floor when a bed stood right beside them. I have been kicked and hit but never lost sight of that and never treated anyone like the police treated this woman. She died on the floor.

[MADem]

113. You probably would not have called the police and said "Get this malingering drug seeker out of my

ER" then, would you have?

The police had that woman less than a half hour. The doctor said she was a lying druggie, and they believed the doctor.

I'll bet a ton of people are dragged into that holding facility every year and left in their cells on the floor--probably because they don't want the people who were drunk or drugged rolling off the bunk and hitting their heads on the hard floor. The woman wasn't in a room with "beds"--she was in a crappy holding cell with metal bunks and a crapper and a sink. The metal bunk was probably no more comfortable than the floor. She was under arrest for trespassing (thanks to that DOCTOR), not on holiday and not under any kind of police medical care.

It might not be a pleasant situation, but the police were told--by a doctor, an authority figure who provided the police with a "fit for confinement" order--that the woman was a liar and a druggie.

I blame the doctor. He should have believed her when she said she was hurting.

[HiPointDem]

137. I am not excusing the doc. I said that the actions of the police provided the final indignity.

The woman was lucid and responding appropriately when she left the hospital. The police treated her disrespectfully and completely ignored her lucid statement that she could not walk and needed a wheelchair.

Poor and powerless people often receive this kind of treatment in any situation in which they try to assert themselves against authorities, even minor authorities like ordinary hospital workers or low-level police. It is simply a fact. It is not unusual.

[MADem]

143. The police were simply a pump primed by the doctor.

The doctor told them she was fine--in writing.

The doctor told them she was a disrupting troublemaking tresspasser looking for drugs.

The doctor set the stage and told the tale.

Who are the police to believe? Odds are good they've dealt with that ER staff before, getting "fitness for confinement" orders all the time. I'll bet the doctors weren't routinely wrong at that place and people weren't keeling over dead every day in their little holding cell after being transported from that ER.

The problem with this woman is that she did not have the personal resources TO assert herself adequately--she was barely coherent, in pain, combative and off the charts. The police--based on what the doctor told them--likely figured she was coming off drugs and was having difficulty as a consequence.

It is a terrible, terrible thing, but I put the blame on the person responsible for figuring out that there WAS something wrong with her--the doctor--not the police.

Had the doctor done his or her job, that woman would never have been transported to that holding cell in the first place. That doctor just called the cops to "take out the trash"--instead of caring for the woman as was his or her duty to do. Of course, the police station is where she died, but she should never have even been there in the first place--had the doctor done his/her job.

[HiPointDem]

125. Nothing to do with intelligence. Something to do with humanity.

My 6-year-old nephew wouldn't leave someone who was moaning and apparently ill lying on the floor. Neither should those cops have done.

It wouldn't have made any difference in her ending, except that she wouldn't have had to die lying on the floor like a piece of trash.

But it does tell a great deal about the cops attitude toward those they believe don't have enough power to hurt them.

[MADem]

128. Whatever. You know it all. You "know" that no one in custody ever lies or fakes it.

If you read what the cops had to say, they were rather shocked about it, after they tried and failed to revive the woman.

But enjoy your prejudices.

[HiPointDem]

130. Why are you making it personal? They left her laying on the floor. There was no need for that,

whether they thought she was faking it or not.

Edit to add: I could see them leaving someone laying on the floor if they were violently resisting being placed on the bed or something, but she was not resisting at all. She was moaning in apparent pain and continued to moan when they closed the door.

Don't make it personal. It's not about ME. There was no excuse for them to leave her laying on the floor.

[MADem]

133. Yes, there WAS a need for that.

It was a holding cell, not a hotel room. You put drunks and "druggies" on the floor so they don't fall off the bench-bunk and hurt themselves. If the person wants to use the bunk, they will get up on it when they sober up/straighten out--usually, if the doctor hasn't lied to the police about the person's fitness for confinement.

Holding cells have metal (sometimes concrete) "bunks"--there are no "beds" with fluffy pillows. Get a load of these little kids visiting a PD and seeing a "typical" holding cell: http://belagreta.blogspot.com/2012/02/cub-scouts-police-department.html

That one is fairly modern--all in one. Some have metal bunks screwed into the wall. The idea behind a holding cell is that you can clean it with a high pressure hose. There aren't any "comforts" for the people unfortunate enough to find themselves in one.

The police will often put drunks and druggies (and they were told by a DOCTOR that this woman was a druggie) on the floor so they don't roll off the bunk and hit their head. There is no "comfy place" to put someone. Bunk, floor--it's all hard and cold.

I am not making this "personal"--I am simply objecting to a series of characterizations that aren't born out by any evidence whatsoever. The police are not doctors. They were told, minutes previously, by a DOCTOR, that the woman was "fit for confinement" and a druggie looking for drugs. Within a half hour, they were putting away the defibrillator and expressing shock after an unsuccessful CPR. This is not supposition, it is made plain in the articles cited in this thread.

There seems to be an unreasonable expectation that the police should magically be possessed of powers of diagnosis exceeding that of a medical doctor, and that they should automatically believe anyone in custody who complains (like no one in custody ever screams, wails and goes limp for no good reason--or to try to get back into a medical facility to try to get drugs) --even after they've just come from a doctor's exam where the doctor told the police the person was "fine."

[HiPointDem]

134. I will post the picture again. You are mistaken.

On edit: She was clearly lucid in the squad car, responding appropriately to questions. There was no reason to lay her on the floor.

I repeat that it is my belief that the police action of carrying her by her ankles was what immediately precipitated her death 15 minutes later. By the time they got her inside she was moaning and never said another word.

[MADem]

145. I will repeat that people withdrawing from drugs sometimes move about violently.

They also puke.

Why do you keep rattling on about the police carrying her by the ankles? Those police were TOLD by a DOCTOR that she was "fit for confinement." They didn't say "Oh, don't touch her ankles, she has a blood clot that we did not see in her leg." When people refuse to move, even if a doctor has declared them "fit," the police do not have a magic wand--they have to get the prisoner into the cell.

You--for some odd reason-- want the police to have extra-sensory powers. You also want to blame them for transporting a "fit for confinement" (as per the doctor) "uncooperative" prisoner in a standard way.

They were doing what they do with EVERY combative, drug seeking tresspasser that they might place under arrest, and probably every arrestee who is brought first to the ER for a fitness for confinement certification under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Those police probably believed she was moaning because she felt like shit for want of drugs, and anticipated that she'd be vomiting sooner than later.

Why don't you have any harsh words for the damn doctor? If the doctor had done his/her job, that woman would never have been IN that holding cell. The police were the last ones with the hot potato--that was flung at them by a doctor who did not do his/her job.

[HiPointDem]

148. Withdrawal from opiates does not make one lose consciousness or lose control in the sense that

they would be liable to fall out of bed without knowing it. You are lucid when you withdraw from opiates. You are simply in pain and sick.

There was no indication from her behavior that she was junk-sick at all.

The police just didn't give a shit about her. She was scum to them.

and on edit: You say that their concern after she died shows they didn't mean any harm. I don't think so. I think it showed them that their treatment of her might come under review. People usually start rethinking their actions and perhaps being sorry, sometimes genuinely so, in such situations.

The fact remains, they treated her carelessly and with disdain, regardless of what the doc told them. Regardless of whether she was actually a malingerer, a junkie, or a schizophrenic, they treated her poorly.

[MADem]

149. This woman was on no drugs. We don't know what kind of drugs the "doctor" assumed she was on.

The police have seen all kinds. They also were told what she was--a druggie looking for drugs who was healthy enough to be confined in a holding cell, per the doctor.

For people who thought she was "scum"--according to you--they were, by their post-mortem conversation, pretty shocked by what happened to that "scum."

You have no idea how they felt. I do not understand why you persist in making THEM the "bad guys" for doing something they do every day, yet you have nothing to say about the doctor who PUT HER IN THAT CELL in the first place?

If anyone didn't give a shit about her, it was the doctor who called the cops, the doctor who said she was trespassing, the doctor who had her arrested, the doctor who told the police she was a drug seeking druggie, the doctor who gave the police a "fit for confinement" order, the doctor who said there was nothing wrong with her even though she said she had leg pain, and the doctor who sent her on her merry way to die--pass the hot potato, the police have it now! Not my problem, said the doctor!

[HiPointDem]

151. When you go into the hospital and say you have pain, they don't give you amphetamines.

They give you painkillers, some kind of opiate-like substance. As far as I know, withdrawal from all of them is pretty similar.

I have already said I am not excusing the doctor or the hospital. Not at all. The hospital's responsibility goes without saying, and she would not typically have been treated that way had she been insured, monied, and white.

I am curious why you want to excuse the police, though. It's not their job to treat suspected indigent drug addicts like shit. Their careless treatment of her was to me the final indignity. The woman was moaning in pain and they left her lying on the cold floor. They ignored her lucid request for a wheelchair. They DEMANDED that she stand up when she told them she couldn't. They grabbed her ankles and carried her in knowing that her complaint was leg pain.

In my opinion, their treatment precipitated her death. They are not totally responsible, but they are not guiltless by any means.

[MADem]

154. No, but opiates can calm you down if you can't get your coke or meth, can't they?

We do know that the doctor blew her off, in essence called her a liar, told the cops there was nothing wrong with her, that she was a bullshitting drug seeker, and characterized her in such a way as to leave a definite impression in the minds of the police.

I am not "excusing" the police. They did their fucking job. They transported a lying, drug seeking drug addict with 'nothing wrong with her' to their jail (as they were told by the doctor). The woman yelled, refused to follow orders, and was combative, as many holding cell prisoners under the influence of drugs or drink are. The police did what they had to do to get on with their shift.

Bottom line--had the DOCTOR done his/her job, that woman never would have met those policemen. The doctor kicked the can down the road, and the police are taking the hit for the doctor not telling them what the true nature of this woman's condition was--which might have been revealed had the woman not been shoved off on the cops.

She never should have been in that cell. The DOCTOR put her there.

[HiPointDem]

155. Let's see: the "metal bunk" argument is bunk, the "painkiller withdrawal" argument is bunk, now

you're saying maybe the police thought she was an amphetamine addict who wanted to get opiates to take the edge off?

You're stretching.

The woman did not "yell" until they grabbed her legs, as anyone can see by reviewing the video. Up to then she had sat quietly in the squad car, lucid, and made no comments except to say she needed a wheelchair, she could not walk, she was in pain.

She was not "combative" in any way, shape, or form, except to insist that she was in pain and couldn't walk. Is that "combative" in your book? Should she have said, "OK, officer, I'll walk, you say I can so I must be able to?"

She yelled only when they carried her by the legs that she had told everyone, repeatedly, were painful, and that had physical signs (swelling) to support her statement.

She gave no evidence of being under the influence, she just committed the cardinal sin of being poor and insisting that there WAS something wrong with her after "authorities" said there wasn't.

The cops treated her carelessly and disdainfully. Regardless of what the doc said, they could put her in the bed. I bet there is a wheelchair at the jail, too.

I don't think there is any point in discussing it further with you.

[MADem]

158. None of it is "bunk." The metal bunk had a rubber mat on it. So what?

The drugs--there were none in her system, but that is not what THE DOCTOR said. Drug addicts puke. You leave them on the floor. If they feel well enough to get up, they will.

And of course, according to the DOCTOR, the woman was fine--just a drug-seeking, lying malingerer. She would surely get up when she was ready. The doctor wouldn't lie!

You're the one who brought up amphetamines--not me. Stop trying to put your suppositions on me. I said coke, meth, and who knows what kind of street drug--I didn't commit to anything. You did. And so did THE DOCTOR--who said she was a druggie, when she had no drugs in her system.

Why are you so unwilling to put the blame where it belongs? Are you working for the hospital? Feel that medical professionals never make mistakes? I am astounded at your unwillingness to see where this started, and why that woman ended up in the jail--two words--THE DOCTOR. The doctor misdiagnosed her and shoved her off on the police to die. The DOCTOR is at fault.

And why would there be a wheelchair in a jail? Why would you "bet" that? Wheelchairs are commonly found in hospitals, not jails. People who are "unfit for confinement" and who would need medical care while under arrest are kept in hospital locked wards, or under guard in an out-of-the-way room at the end of a hospital hallway--not in jails. If they're convicted, they go to prison hospitals.

See, that's why it was so important for the doctor to certify the woman's fitness--so she COULD be arrested and pushed off on the cops. The police do not put "unfit" people in their cells. They even get doctors to sign off on people's fitness if they get a scrape or bruise while being arrested. People who need medical care get it before they are jailed--even people who get in bar fights, knife fights, have gunshot wounds, etc.--they don't go to jail until they get treated, and receive a fitness for confinement statement before leaving the hospital.

I'll bet if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. Whatever--there is indeed no point going on--you are completely excusing the doctor for putting that woman in the jail cell, and blaming the police for not having x-ray vision to see a clot, and to realize with their extraordinary extra-sensory powers that the woman that they were told by a medical professional was a lying, "fit for confinement," drug-seeking addict wasn't a lying and fit drug-seeking addict.

Incredible.

[geckosfeet]

13. About 4 months ago I spent the night in an ER.

Nearby my bed was drunk/drugged woman who had badly burnt her hand and arm. But she was so drunk/stoned she did not feel it, and she was giving the staff a dreadful time. She did seem to realize that she needed treatment and walked in voluntarily. The staff was trying to treat her but she was very hostile and resistant - and loud.

This whole episode lasted for hours and took place about twenty or thirty feet from my own bed. I could hear everything. Her screams. The doctors and nurses talking to and pleading with her to calm down and let them treat her. Security calling for more help.

At several points the woman tried to get up and leave but the staff refused to let her go due to liability issues. Eventually (after about 4 hours of her screaming and and yelling) they actually had security hold her down while they sedated and treated her. I am not quite sure how they accomplished this as they pulled the curtains. I just know that one minute she was wailing and screaming and the next minute she was docile as a baby bunny.

About three or four hours later, with her arm and hand in bandages she was recovered enough to leave. As she walked out she has a sheepish look and apologized to almost everyone she saw.

This was one of the longest nights of my life. But just the difference in patient treatment in this womans experience and the one in the OP is astounding. In one case the hospital would not let the patient leave without treating her, in the other they had the patient carted off by the police.

WTF?

[pacalo]

30. You've given a good example of how the dedicated professionals handle difficult situations.

[Turbineguy]

15. So now if you're sick

the justice system kicks in to take care of you? We seem to have gone past the point of no return. The stupid's gone mainstream.

[HipChick]

18. Ironically look at who won the award for best Hospital

http://www.healthgrades.com/hospital-directory/HospitalsResults.aspx?awardid=a100b&awardname=America%27s%20100%20Best%20Hospitals%20Award&sortby=awards&sortorder=descending&pagenumber=8&letter

[Crunchy Frog]

109. No doubt it's because they're good at keeping out the riff-raff.

[Zalatix]

20. Take a look at her picture, that explains why they did this to her.

She was a black poor woman. That's a triple negative to the 1% and their minions.

[cynatnite]

23. No, it was not insurance related...

I've read several articles about this and it seems to me she had mental issues going on. An ultrasound was performed along with other tests. If they kept accurate medical records, it will show whether or not they gave the correct medical care.

She also went to 2 other hospitals besides this one. She has a history of issues and lost her children as well. This is not a cut and dry case at all.

[Rex]

26. Well I don't think ending up dead in a jail cell

was the point, but why didn't the cops ask the hospital she was in if she was on any medications? Did they think she was overdosing on drugs or did they know she was overdosing on drugs, because that appears to not be the case.

[cynatnite]

32. We don't have all facts here. It's difficult to speculate on things like this. n/t

[Rex]

34. True, but one would think the cops would clear her with the

hospital she was dragged away from.

[cynatnite]

35. It was the doctors who cleared her medically...

ultimately, the liability will lie with them if they did anything wrong.

[Rex]

47. I guess the cops thought she was looking for drugs

and she would 'recover' in a holding tank.

[cynatnite]

51. I do think they jumped the gun on whether or not she was a drug seeker...

Which is easy to do because ER's are filled with them.

All I can say they better have covered their bases on this. The hospital may have to do a payout regardless of the findings.

[Heathen57]

103. I went to the ER

three times complaining with neck and shoulder pain. I had insurance but it was worthless, and they pegged me as some kind of drug seeker. When the physician came in and told me he wouldn't give me any pain pills because he thought that was all I wanted. I looked him straight in the face and told him I didn't want his F***ing drugs, what I wanted was to find out why it hurt! The physician told me that my insurance might or might not cover an MRI so his job was to get me out the door alive.

I found out later (with a doctor ordered MRI) that I have 5 ruptured disks in my neck starting @ C1-2 and going down.

I walked back in one last time to the ER and informed the chief of Emergency medicine what I had found out and that they would have saved me 3 months of pain and injury. He blew it off, I'm sure, but it felt good to shove the MRI report in his face and accuse him and his department of malpractice.

Instead of making rash decisions, an ER should obey the Hippocratic Oath and do no harm.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

85. You're not actually thinking about introducing facts here, are you?

There's no room for facts in a DISCUSSION. Hippie.

[liberalhistorian]

27. I don't care what "mental" issues she had,

that is no excuse for not picking up on blood clots after an injury; when someone is screaming in pain that their legs hurt too much to walk and they've had a recent injury, it ain't too much of a stretch to think of blood clots and give proper treatment. How could they possibly have missed such clots? Might it be that they were biased against someone with alleged "mental" issues, as I've personally witnessed medical professionals doing? People with issues deserve the same level of proper care, treatment and concern as everyone else. Criminalizing mental issues does nothing to solve any problem at all.

[cynatnite]

31. There are any number of reasons why those clots could have been missed...

only professionals will be able to determine that when they go over her records from the 3 hospitals she went to over this.

And you should care if she was suffering mental issues. That could play a role in how she was treated by both the police and the medical staff.

[liberalhistorian]

61. I understand that, that was precisely the point I was trying to make.

What I meant when I said I didn't care was that it shouldn't matter what "issues" a person has, they still deserve proper care, concern and treatment instead of being dismissed or criminalized. And just because ER's are full of drug seekers, and I do understand that that's the case, doesn't mean that each and every patient should be considered to be one.

And if she was being treated differently because of her mental issues, then that's a double shame on the doctors and staff.

[cynatnite]

66. She had gone to 2 other hospitals as well...

If the staff knew this, then that is one of the signs that the patient may be a drug seeker. There are others as well. It's normally not assumed that a 50 year old man in for chest pain is a drug seeker. Every patient is not assumed to be one.

If she was being treated differently by this assumption and possible mental issues, then it may have played a role in what kind of care she got. That could mean they are still liable.

[uppityperson]

75. Thank you for posting all you have here. I read about this yesterday, had to be offline for the

last couple hrs so could not pull up links and information to share. I appreciate what you have done here.

This case is tragic and not as simple as it appears at first glance.
Thank you.

[HiPointDem]

165. It's also one of the signs that the "treatment" didn't work and the patient is still in pain.

And she didn't go to three hospitals. She was at a clinic, they refused to treat, she wheeled herself next door to the pediatric facility where they couldn't treat, then she went to the third hospital where they sent her to jail.

The fact that she might be a drug user and might have mental issues should have nothing to do with the treatment she receives.

I don't understand why people bring those up as though drug users and mental patients shouldn't receive the same care anyone else would, as though the hospital people & cops should get a pass because they "thought" she was a druggie or psycho.

[noiretextatique]

44. they thought she was a drug seeker

per the police report.

[noiretextatique]

36. she died because of blood clots in her leg

and she was complaining about that. there may be more to the story, but she died of a blot clot and was complaining of pains in her legs.

[cynatnite]

39. Yes, we know that...

What has to be determined is if the medical staff from the hospitals she visited did their jobs. They did an ultrasound on her legs. When the medical records are gone over with a fine tooth comb, it can be determined if there was a medical liability.

There is no reason to jump the gun before having all the facts.

[noiretextatique]

41. the facts are: she was complaining of leg pain and hauled off to jail

where she died of a blood clot in her leg. those are the facts. perhaps it was not detectable, i understand that. i cannot accuse the hospital staff of negligence, but the facts are pretty clear.

[cynatnite]

48. The facts are in her medical records and no one can make a judgment one way or the other...

until professionals go through them with a fine tooth comb.

the only ones that know the facts of this case are those directly involved.

You and I are not and we can only make uneducated judgments based on a few news articles. I've worked in more than one ER and I can tell you these things are rarely that simple.

[noiretextatique]

56. she did die from a blood clot, did she not? in jail, after she refused to leave

the hospital, where is seems she was complaining of leg pain. i get that the clot might not have been detectable, etc. but the facts are: she went to the hospital complaining of pains in her leg. she refused to leave the hospital and was arrested and taken to jail, where she died from a blood clot in her leg, which is what she was complaining about at the hospital. she may have been crazy as a loon, but she died from the very thing she was complaining about.

[cynatnite]

60. It does not make the hospital liable...

It's an awful thing to happen to this poor woman.

But if you have treated a patient all you could and they refuse to leave the ER, what do you do? As best as you can tell, there was nothing wrong with the patient, but they are a disturbance in an emergency room.

IMO, I think they jumped the gun with assuming she was a drug seeker. I also think they should have done more to locate family to be with her. They may have done this or they may not have had time. ER's are busy places. I also think she had mental issues. All of these things could have affected her medical care. But, I'm outside of this and don't have all the facts.

I'm not sure if her death could have been prevented either. Going over the records and the results of her autopsy will answer that as well.

[noiretextatique]

63. i am not saying the hospital is liable

but i am saying that her complaint was valid. easy to say in retrospect, i understand that whatever was going on with her may not have been detected at the time.

[xtraxritical]

141. With the Affordable Care Act and medicare for all you would not be having this conversation.

[HiPointDem]

140. She went to several hospitals because the problem persisted despite the supposed "treatment".

As would most people. When people have insurance, the medical authorities will typically persist in attempting to identify the problem if the patient keeps complaining of pain and if physical signs (such as swelling, which Ms. Brown had) persist.

When people are indigent, they will be less persistent. This is a simple fact. So it is not true that Ms. Brown's lack of insurance had no bearing on this case.

As for her supposed mental issues, are you saying that people with mental issues don't deserve medical care? I would have mental issues too if I had lost my job, my home, my kids and was living on the street and no one would believe me when I told them something was wrong with me, and they treated me as "drug-seeking" scum.

[cynatnite]

24. Before taking this one article's word for it....check out these others as well...

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/03/26/missouri-woman-dies-jail-after-hospital-arrest/

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ed640f3d-64a0-516c-88ff-fb770b5e9677.html

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Missouri-woman-dies-in-jail-after-hospital-arrest-144183175.html

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/woman-demanding-care-at-st-mary-s-hospital-is-arrested/article_ed640f3d-64a0-516c-88ff-fb770b5e9677.html

This is not a simple case of the ER not wanting to help this woman.

[noiretextatique]

38. "My sister is not here today because people passed judgment"

since she did in fact die of a blood clot in her leg, i am not sure her history is relevant.

[cynatnite]

42. It is very relevant...

Anyone in the medical profession will tell you that it is. Her entire medical history will be a part of their investigation in addition to everything that happened in the 3 ERs she visited.

The family has a lawyer. If there is a medical liability, the lawyer will make sure those responsible are made accountable.

[noiretextatique]

46. they thought she was a drug seeker

which turned out not to be relevant, since she had a blood clot.

[MADem]

50. And she had no drugs in her system.

The video at one of those links is so damn sad.

[cynatnite]

54. They did an ultrasound and found no clot...

ER's are filled with drug seekers. It is relevant if her medical care was affected by that judgment.

Only medical records will determine if they did their jobs.

on edit: I should add that they will check the ultrasound and see if the tech did a correct ultrasound or missed the clot...which does happen.

I am not willing to jump the gun before the evidence is in.

[noiretextatique]

57. i am not trying to condemn them either: but per the police report

they thought she was a drug seeker.

[cynatnite]

62. Which is a very common happening in an ER...

You should see the load of drug seekers we get in an OBGYN clinic.

I do think they jumped the gun on that assumption and it may have played a role in how she was treated. The records will show it one way or the other. You can bet that the people in that ER are having to answer a lot of questions.

[noiretextatique]

65. i know...my cousin is an ER nurse

and honestly...she might have been a drug seeker who happened to have a legitimate medical problem.

[cynatnite]

68. Very true...

From what I read of her, she lost her job, lost her home and her kids. She was basically homeless. This was such a tragedy.

[noiretextatique]

70. yes it was

i hope she can rip after her troubled life.

[MADem]

40. Heartbreaking.

She was arrested for trespassing and wheeled out in handcuffs after a doctor said she was healthy enough to be locked up.

Back in the jail cell, Richmond Heights Fire Chief Kerry Hogan was putting away the jail's defibrillator when, according to a recording of the conversation, a Richmond Heights officer told him: "We got a 'fit (for confinement') on her a half hour ago. I mean, literally, a half hour ago we brought her in here."
"Where at?" Hogan asked.
"St. Mary's."
"What was, uh. Any problems at all?"
"No, they thought she was a drug seeker."

[moriah]

74. They thought she was seeking, and maybe wanted a roof for the night.

ER personnel have a very difficult job, I know, and very few go into medicine or nursing who don't sincerely care about human life.

But after awhile, they get jaded.

A good nurse or doctor would have questioned the swelling in the legs, and it appears they did. Unfortunately, the test they used -- ultrasound -- is not very effective at finding clots below the knee, which is where her swelling was. A truly good doctor or nurse would pay attention to continued complaints about pain and try to find out exactly what was going on. But after their test (which may have been a cursory examination of the veins at best, she'd been a frequent flyer in that ER that week), they decided that since they couldn't find anything, there was nothing to find.

Which was a fatal mistake here, and may end up being malpractice if they can't justify why they didn't do an imaging study more sensitive to clots below the knee.

[Devil_Fish]

45. The Republican Health Care Plan:

Don't Get Sick,


And If You Do Get Sick:



Die Quickly

[jonthebru]

55. From one of the articles:

"St. Mary's officials say they did all they were supposed to do for Brown. "Our records show that, in this case, everything that should have been done medically was done properly. We found nothing that would have changed this tragic outcome," according to a statement.

Acting Police Chief Maj. Roy Wright said his officers had no way of knowing Brown's dire condition."
They all suck and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Saint Mary's Hospital indeed.

[begin_within]

72. The mission statement of St. Mary's, from their web site:

"Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God."

"In accordance with the philosophy of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, we value the sacredness and dignity of each person. Therefore, we find these five values consistent with both our heritage and ministerial priorities:

Compassion Respect Excellence Stewardship Community"

http://www.ssmhealth.com/pages/about%20ssm.aspx

http://www.ssmhealth.com/stmarys/about/Pages/Home.aspx

[pennylane100]

79. I think I want to puke.

[surrealAmerican]

97. That's a sick joke.

I wonder if the person who wrote it had any thought that those words might have some sort of meaning.

[Cali_Democrat]

78. I really despise this country sometimes

[Quantess]

81. This makes me so sad.

I had a strong hunch she was black, because they just assumed she was a drug addict and sent her to jail. This sort of thing doesn't happen to white people very often... the immediate dismissal of someone, "oh just another drug addict who is moaning in pain for no good reason".

I'm sure it happens occasionally to white people who look sort of rough or smell bad, but the bar is set higher. Black people are more likely to be mistaken for drug addicts than white people, even with equal clothes, hygiene, etc.

[malaise]

82. Institutional racism

plain and simple

[cali]

84. that fucking doctor should be banned from practicing medicine

forfuckingever and I hope her family sues the living shit out the hospital.

and this story is just so tragic and awful.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/woman-unhappy-with-care-at-st-mary-s-hospital-is/article_ed640f3d-64a0-516c-88ff-fb770b5e9677.html

[trumad]

86. That is possibly one of the saddest videos I've ever watched.

They couldn't even lay her in the bed.

Fucking disgusting.

[Evasporque]

94. I self deleted because I had a TMI moment...

DVT is a real threat and a major killer....

Is all I will say....

[EmeraldCityGrl]

88. This country is a bureaucratic cesspool. n/t

[Mr Dixon]

89. IMO

The poor get no love, the dollar rules always has always will

[ThatsMyBarack]

90. Health Care Police State!

eom

[Doctor_J]

96. "Best health care system in the world"

just ask the teabaggers

[Liberal_in_LA]

99. omg

[tblue37]

100. Maybe I am jumping the gun here, but before I click the link I am going to make a guess:

this young woman was probably a minority. I am guessing African-American, but in our current social climate, a Hispanic-American might also be treated this badly.

Now I will check the link to see if my guess is right.


On edit: Yep--African-American. Now how could I know that?

Heads need to roll (metaphorically, of course) when things like this happen!

[Enrique]

104. yes I was shocked as well

the most unexpected thing in the world that she turned out to be black.


another surprising thing is when you hear about little kids being arrested at school for minor things, and they turn out to be black.

[tabasco]

101. St. Mary's Health Center

I'm sure Saint Mary would be proud.

[Hepburn]

102. I nearly died in 2007 from a blood clot in my leg going to my lungs

Thank gawd that the clot broke into a 1,000 pieces instead of staying in one piece and blocking something that would have caused my death.

No problem with ER treatment -- but I am an elderly white woman with insurance and a retired lawyer. Hmmmm...

Admitted to the hosp for 4 days and then home with home nursing care and follow up blood thinners and MD appt'mts until all was resolved.

[HipChick]

118. I developed a clot after surgery 2 years ago...the nurse turned me away

but a dr walking by, saw me, stopped by and examined me...he walked over to the nurse, reprimanded her and admitted me ...I would say its the most painful thing in the world

[EFerrari]

136. I walked into an ER with a head injury once

And directly after finding out I had no insurance, the attending asked me if I was on drugs and then, where I lived. He was going to find a way to get rid of me, it apparently was part of his job.

[roguevalley]

108. there are no words. that hospital must be reviewed. RIP Anna. You deserved better.

29! Arg.

[Dawson Leery]

131. Coppers (usually right wingers) enforcing the death panels against the non-1%?

[baldguy]

161. "Christian charity"

Thank god she didn't want an abortion.

[Cali_Democrat]

163. TYT talks about this:

A tornado destroyed this poor woman's home. One thing led to another, she became homeless and lost her kids.

Sad!! http://www.democraticunderground.com/101719472

[HiPointDem]

164. Kicking this again.

[Judi Lynn]

166. Homeless woman's death in police custody stirs anger in St. Louis

Homeless woman's death in police custody stirs anger in St. Louis
By Matt Pearce
March 29, 2012, 5:10 a.m.

~snip~
"She was not a drug dealer or a hooker or doing other things that she could've ended up dead for," said sister Krystle Brown, according the Post-Dispatch. "People assume things because of the way they talk or the way they live or the things they do. My sister is not here today because people passed judgment."

Hospital and police officials maintain that they did everything right. According to the Post-Dispatch, Brown showed up at SLU Hospital in St. Louis a week earlier complaining of leg pain after she said she’d sprained her ankle in a ditch; hospital officials said there were no sign of blood clots, as did the St. Mary’s Health Center officials who examined her the day she died. Richmond Heights acting Police Chief Maj. Roy Wright defended his officers' actions, saying the hospital had told them she was good to go.

"A lot of times people don't want to stay in jail and will claim to be sick," he told the Post-Dispatch. "We depend on medical officials to tell us they're OK."

The story is reminiscent of the 2007 case of Edith Isabel Rodriguez, a "quasi-transient" who showed up at what was then called Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in Willowbrook, south of Watts, complaining of stomach pains. A janitor cleaned the floor around her as she vomited blood and went untreated -- a scene captured on video -- and two people called 911 to beg for help, without success. Rodriguez died at the scene, shortly after police had tried to arrest her on an outstanding warrant.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-st.-louis-homeless-woman-death20120327,0,171094.story