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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums57 yr. FL black woman gets arrested because she won't leave hospital, saying she can't breathe.
In the parking lot she collapses. Police remove her handcuffs so she can get medical attention.
She dies, of course. The autopsy on Barbara Dawson is due out today.
I bet she had a heart attack. Women having heart attacks are much likely to be misdiagnosed than men, because the "classic" heart attack taught in med school is based on the male model. Women have different symptoms.
So she probably died because she was a woman, and black, and in Florida. But we'll know more later today.
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2015/12/22/blountstown-woman-dies-while-being-kicked-out-area-hospital/77758316/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=
Blountstown Police Chief Mark Mallory said Dawson was admitted to the hospital about 10:30 p.m. Hours later, she was discharged after being treated and cleared by hospital staff.
Dawson, however, felt she needed to remain at the hospital for continued care and told the medical staff she "still was not feeling well," relatives said. The family said the nursing staff then "banned" her from the hospital.
SNIP
After Dawson refused to leave the facility, hospital staff called police about 4:45 a.m. Monday.
"She was causing a disturbance in the hospital with her language and the volume of her voice," Mallory said.
The officer was polite to Dawson, Mallory said, and told her she was free to get medical care, but she had to seek treatment elsewhere. She was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing, handcuffed and escorted out of the hospital.
Relatives reported Dawson requested hospital staff return her oxygen tank because she was having difficulty breathing. However, they said a nurse told Dawson she was breathing fine and did not need it.
SNIP
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)Thank you in advance.
pnwmom
(108,990 posts)Vinca
(50,300 posts)It's the hospital this time, not the cops. Poor lady.
LiberalArkie
(15,727 posts)Omaha Steve
(99,687 posts)K&R!
OS
pnwmom
(108,990 posts)it had the most details -- but if it's behind a wall, thats not useful!
LiberalArkie
(15,727 posts)If you are not, then they want some information. Kind of like people posting articles from Wall Street Journal, looks fine to a paying member and a no go for others.
pnwmom
(108,990 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,727 posts)same story. Where I grew up we had a Sisters of Mercy hospital that took everyone in. The county (Baptists) built a for profit hospital in think in the 1960's. The county hospital would send emergency patients over to the Catholic hospital for years, until they ran it into the ground and bought it for pennies really.
After they did that they would send emergency patients to another county "as they did not have a doctor present to handle the care" and "it would take less time to transport the patient to the other hospital than it would to find a doctor".
Yea, I understand the article.
Yes I can see the site, NBC does not have a wall up.
darkangel218
(13,985 posts)What a heartbreaking story
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)1939
(1,683 posts)I have seen the same thing in military health care hospitals (totally free) where the doctors, nurses, and "clerks and jerks" decide you aren't sick enough and tell you to go away.
pnwmom
(108,990 posts)They would be quicker to kick someone out without insurance.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)fasttense
(17,301 posts)And she was turned away from the hospital to die somewhere else.
My spouse was released from a hospital and 6 hours latter he was back in the hospital with the exact same symptoms. It's as if they didn't know what congestive heart failure was or how to treat it. We eventually found a better hospital and he was transferred. He had open heart surgery and is doing much better. The hospital we originally went to was poorly staffed and had poorly trained doctors.
But this poor woman had no one fighting for her. Congestive heart failure can cause breathing problems because your lungs fill up with liquid and prevent you from getting air. If you are the one experiecing the problem, you think you're not getting enough air or oxygen. And your oxygen levels are good up until you can't breathe because of all the fluid in your lungs. That poor woman. She must have been very scared all the way up until her death. What a horrible way to die.
pnwmom
(108,990 posts)csziggy
(34,136 posts)But the next nearest hospital is over an hour away from Blountstown!
From the link in the OP:
"The officer was polite to Dawson, Mallory said, and told her she was free to get medical care, but she had to seek treatment elsewhere. "