Black Florida woman kicked out of hospital, ARRESTED for refusing to go, dies of blood clot

[pnwmom]

in her lung.

A damn blood clot in her lung and they kicked her out of the hospital?

Sometimes pulmonary embolisms occur without prior symptoms and then they can be hard to detect and treat. But this woman entered the hospital at 10:30 PM and died by 6 the next morning. They kicked her out without identifying or treating the blood clot in her lung but SHE knew she was in pain and couldn't breathe and they told her she was wrong

I have a relative who's had deep vein thrombosis, in a leg, and I know how careful the hospital was because it can go into your lungs and "instantly" kill you.

But this lady had symptoms for HOURS.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/barbara-dawson-florida-woman-dies-after-being-removed-hospital-n485186

Barbara Dawson, 57, went to Liberty Calhoun Hospital in Blountstown, Florida, to seek treatment for breathing problems. Police were called to the emergency room when Dawson, who had been discharged by physicians, refused to leave. She was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing and was escorted out of the hospital in handcuffs.


Dawson then collapsed as she arrived at the officer's car.

"Our officer asked for help once he realized the patient did indeed appear to be unresponsive and had medical staff respond to Ms. Dawson," Blountstown Police Chief Mark Mallory said in a statement on Wednesday.

Dawson was readmitted to the emergency room — where she was pronounced dead an hour later. The Florida state medical examiner ruled on Wednesday that she died from natural causes due to a blood clot in her lung.

Mallory told NBC News there is dashcam video from the officer's car. The video does not show the incident, he said, but it did pick up audio. He says the video will be released "in due time."

[daleanime]

1. More evidence.....

take we have to change the path that we're on.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

60. Another tragic story... hopefully things will change once Bernie assumes office.

[yeoman6987]

2. Why did you change the article of the story?

The title as written by the newspaper staff written was totally sad and unforgiving. Another person died in police custody.

[Kingofalldems]

3. This isn't LBN, poster can write any title they want.

[LanternWaste]

5. I notice you focus on the irrelevant in posts such as this.

I notice you focus on the irrelevant in posts such as this. No doubt, you have your reasons...

[yeoman6987]

10. Yeah like you changing the title on someone else's work

Plus why are you going to my replies all the time? Seems weird. I don't do that and nobody else does either. Also I can focus on what I want. Critical thinking is important for most of us here.

[pnwmom]

17. If you were a critical "thinker" and not just "critical" you would have noticed

that the reporter's title said nothing about the police arresting her. Or her race. Or her blood clot.

My title contained more information than the headline writer's, except for not including the woman's name.

P.S. Reporters don't usually title their own work; that's an editorial job.

[yeoman6987]

18. Maybe they should hire you

You seem to believe your title are better. At the very least contact them and discuss their inadequate titles.

[Kingofalldems]

20. Who left you in charge?

[Mariana]

24. The poster titled a post on DU, not an article.

Perhaps you're thinking of FR, where they insist the posters use the exact title of the article the post refers to.

[daleanime]

28. Obviously couldn't hire you...

as you seem preoccupied.

[pnwmom]

29. My title was better, I thought, for DU. Their title is better for their site. So what?

[draa]

53. Yeah, I thought it was fine as well.

Thanks for the read.

[pnwmom]

55. You're welcome.

[pennylane100]

94. Yes, your post was absolutely fine.

Changing it as suggested would have been wrong.

[Chemisse]

61. Her title IS better - for DU.

Why do you care so much about this? There is plenty to comment on about the story itself.

[pnwmom]

74. Don't you wonder sometimes why people nitpick about things that having

very little to do with the subject of a post?

Why would someone want to distract from the content, which I was obviously trying to summarize in the headline?

[yeoman6987]

78. I was just about to answer ant got a jury request. Later.

[yeoman6987]

79. Ok back. I've been getting them all day today.

Anyway. I am glad to know we are allowed to change titles as I will for everyone of my OPs. Nice. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Chemisse]

88. Feel free to do so, as long as it's not in LBN.

I'm glad you at least learned something in this thread.

[Igel]

52. Or pain.

Or anything other than the rather generic "had trouble breathing."

Heck, I've had trouble breathing. And if a blood clot can be hard to diagnose, that hardly makes non-diagnosis intentional.

There'll be a review. Until then, we'll all jump on the obvious bandwagon and pass judgment (in hindsight, with much more information) on those who were there--doctors, nurses, and residents/interns.

So that when the review decides that what was done was reasonable, we'll already be rock-solid in our verdicts. Because we'd be so much better.

[pnwmom]

54. She'd been there since 10:30 pm, complaining of pain and difficulty breathing.

And they insisted on kicking her out six hours later, even though she was telling them she couldn't breathe and was begging for oxygen.

A serious blood clot can occur without symptoms , making it hard to diagnose. But in her situation, she WAS having obvious symptoms. So they should have been getting to the bottom of her symptoms, not kicking her out.

[malaise]

56. Such as this...

or generally?

[dgibby]

6. This is on the hospital, not the police.

I hope her family sues the crap out of them. As a retired RN, no hospital I ever worked in would have discharged her with those symptoms, much less have her arrested. I hope they have to support her entire family for the rest of their lives.

[Chemisse]

62. That's what I was thinking.

When the hospital asks to have someone removed, the police are obliged to respond. I doubt they are interested in second-guessing the medical personnel on whether the woman should be escorted out.

[pnwmom]

75. Me, three. The policeman uncuffed her as soon as she collapsed and he realized

she needed treatment -- no matter what the hospital was saying.

[pnwmom]

15. That title said NOTHING about her being arrested. Mine contained more information.

[hedgehog]

48. It wasn't a matter of dying in police custody - it was a matter of seeing an African American

in need of medical treatment as exaggerating symptoms and/or seeking drugs.

[pnwmom]

57. And a woman. As someone else pointed out, that was probably a factor, too.

Doctors have been shown to be less likely to take a woman's heart attack symptoms seriously; that probably goes for blood clots, too.

[libdem4life]

4. I can usually tell from an article the race of the person/victim. I hate it that I'm usually right.

RIP, Ms. Dawson.

On Edit: before opening the entire article and seeing a photo

[pnwmom]

11. That's why I made her race the first word of the subject line.

I think it's relevant.

[fbc]

19. I concur

[uponit7771]

39. +1

[questionseverything]

7. until we get single payer healthcare this will continue

until healthcare is considered a human right this will continue

right now healthcare is about profits

[pnwmom]

13. The question is whether she had insurance or not. Unfortunately,

doctors can make mistakes. But I'm guessing she had no insurance and that's why they were so quick to kick her out.

[1StrongBlackMan]

32. I have recently found that insurance doesn't matter ...

My Mom was admitted into the hospital, fully insured, and the hospital was trying to discharge her after 2 days, despite falling hemo counts. Bottom line ... as long as our hospitals are constrained by cost, there will be premature discharges.

I have found that the formula is simple, diagnosis => median treatment time => discharge the patient, regardless of whether the patient is "cured" => Fill the bed with another patient.

[pnwmom]

33. So what happened?

Were you able to keep her there as long as necessary?

[1StrongBlackMan]

36. But for the insistence of my sister, my Mom would have discharged ...

interestingly, when I, a male, got there ... the urgency to discharge seemed to lower.

[pnwmom]

72. I bet it did.

Something tells me you were very persuasive . . . in addition to being male.

[1StrongBlackMan]

84. The sad thing is.. All I said was, "Yeah, what she said"! ...

My sister has been managing my Mom's care ... I have only been there to support her.

[Chemisse]

63. That is really true.

Part of it is that insurance companies limit how much time in the hospital that they will pay for, putting the medical personnel in the position of having to lobby insurance companies for more time, if needed.

[questionseverything]

66. it is about the profit

if she had no insurance then it was about the hospitals profit, if she had insurance it was about the insurance companies profit

until we get this "for profit crap" out of healthcare and the justice system nothing will change

which is why i support bernie

[valerief]

71. I seem to recall GOPers telling us that we didn't need Obamacare, because hospitals

took care us when we're sick, thanks to Saint Ronnie.

[ronnie624]

69. *

[area51]

90. +1, questionseverything. n/t

[shireen]

8. hits really close to home

I had a clot in my leg almost 13 years ago, a deep vein thrombosis. My experience was totally opposite -- immediately admitted, ultrasound to determine the extent of the clot (mid-calf to groin), started blood thinners. That lady deserved the same treatment, even more urgently, since the clot had already traveled to her lungs.

My doc once told me, 'it's hit or miss with ER doctors.' I've had many ER visits due to my illness. Some doctors were excellent. Others were dopes. One sent me home after I had lost a dangerous amount of blood. My neighbor drove me home. When we got out of the car, I almost passed out. So we returned, I was seen by another doctor who promptly admitted me.

My heart goes out to that lady's family. Her life could have been saved.

[dlwickham]

81. not a fan of some ER doctors

there's one doctor that works at both of the hospitals in my area; have had to deal with him twice because of my dad

the guy was a prick and wanted to pawn my dad off on someone else

[rhett o rick]

9. This is a terrible story. This is where we are today. We need to change this. nm

[whereisjustice]

25. Too bad our political candidates do nothave enough courage to discuss the roots of this, hey wait...

there is one.

[rhett o rick]

46. We need the change Obama promised in 2007. nm

[KentuckyWoman]

12. That medical examiner is wrong.

She didn't die of natural causes due to a blood clot in her lung. She died because she is black and the hospital staff didn't give a shit.

If they had done their damn jobs to start with Barbara Dawson would likely still be alive.

[Kelvin Mace]

14. Yep!

She was a black woman complaining of pain, so she must be looking for drugs.

[NCTraveler]

16. +1 nt

[pnwmom]

21. Exactly. They had plenty of time to fix her "natural" blood clot. But

they didn't diagnose it or treat it at all -- even though breathlessness should have been a major clue.

[Starry Messenger]

86. This.

[tblue37]

22. The ER staff will be blamed, but I bet they were obeying strict directives from the bean counters in

charge, under threat of dismissal if they didn't get potentially expensive patients without insurance out *fast* and without performing costly tests on them first.

[valerief]

73. Then they should be arrested and be made to testify that they were just

soldiers following orders in the ensuing Nuremburg trials.

[zazen]

23. women in general, including those with great insurance, are disproportionately disbelieved by drs

Several studies on it. I had a white, blonde, rather well-to-do friend end up in ER last month, screaming in pain, who got completely ridiculed and dismissed by the ER doc on call because he thought she was drug shopping. After he did nothing for her and she got later tests, turns out stuff did show up on MRI on her spine, etc. The hospital won't follow through on her complaint.

I've known women throughout my life, myself included, who've been told our problems were psychiatric only to later demonstrate that they were clear medical, non psychiatric conditions. My mom nearly died from appendicitis because the doctors kept telling her she was just under a lot of stress.

When one compounds the suspicion of drug shopping and that all women exaggerate pain with the additional distrust aimed at African Americans, you get situations like this one. Money might have been an element too but I don't think this is all single-payer stuff. I think this is about invalidating women's experience (and women doctors in my experience have been just as bad, or worse, as men doctors at this).

[pnwmom]

27. You're right. The combination of being FEMALE and BLACK was no doubt fatal. n/t

[1StrongBlackMan]

35. You raise good points ...

But I find this interesting ...

When one compounds the suspicion of drug shopping and that all women exaggerate pain with the additional distrust aimed at African Americans, you get situations like this one.

Since the literature that I have read indicates that women tend toward being MORE pain tolerant than males.

[Chemisse]

64. I think the medical misperception about women

is more that we are hypochondriacs, imagining or exaggerating symptoms, rather than pain.

[PersonNumber503602]

37. I've had an ER doctor assume that about me once

This guy was a bit lazy and shady too, and he tried prescribing me something. I explained to him I didn't want pills to cover up the symptoms of what was going on, but wanted to figure out the problem.

[fasttense]

47. You are so correct

I'm a woman and I hobbled over to the emergecy room telling the doctor I was pretty sure I had broken my ankle because the pain was so bad. (I had stepped into a hole while trying to keep my young children from falling into a lake.) He said I couldn't have been walking on it if it was broken but to be on the safe side, he sent me to get my ankle X rayed. I was sitting in the waiting room outside the X-ray room when the doctor came rushing over with a wheelchair. Seems he had seen the X-rays. I had all but pulled my foot off. My ankel was crushed to pieces. He wouldn't let me walk after that.

If I had been a man he would have believed I had broken my ankle.

[Enthusiast]

26. This is why health care should not be motivated by profit concerns.

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. "Our staff was very aggressive with her treatment," Attaway told the newspaper.

Ruth Attaway, administrator and CEO of the hospital told the Tallahassee Democrat that the staff did "everything they could" to save Dawson.

"Our staff was very aggressive with her treatment," Attaway told the newspaper.

[pnwmom]

31. I'd say they behaved rather aggressively in calling for the police to eject her

while she was begging for an oxygen tank.

I'm sure you noticed the irony, too.

[Chemisse]

65. I'll bet they were VERY aggressive!

After she collapsed and they realized that they had screwed up badly!

[FuzzyRabbit]

34. "Our staff was very aggressive with her treatment"

"Ruth Attaway, administrator and CEO of the hospital told the Tallahassee Democrat that the staff did "everything they could" to save Dawson.

"Our staff was very aggressive with her treatment," Attaway told the newspaper."

Yes, they "aggressively" kicked a seriously ill patient out of the hospital.

[lpbk2713]

40. ... the second time she came in.

They might have been fairly confident there was a problem when her
eyes were rolled back in her head and her vitals were off the charts.

[rladdi]

43. Did they take x rays, blood work, even do a scope?

did they do an computerized tomography (CT) scan: This scan gives your doctor the ability to see cross-sectional images of your lungs. or an pulmonary angiography: This test involves making a small incision so your doctor can guide specialized tools through your veins. Your doctor will inject a special dye so that the blood vessels of the lung can be seen. These are 2 critical tests to do. There are several others too.

[mgmaggiemg]

44. yep, denial of health care...simple as that...

happens everyday....

[chervilant]

38. They killed her

as surely as if they shot her in cold blood.

My heart goes out to her family and friends.

[rladdi]

41. It is a series of racial acts by cops and medical staffs. I hope the surviving family sues for

BILLIONS. Must be the hospital staff was most incompetent not to find the blood clot. That should have been easy to find.

[mgmaggiemg]

42. yep this is our health care system and it's happening every day

the saddest part of this; her case not unique tons of people turned away because they appear upright awake essentially but body is about to give out....there's a huge myth that hospitals and the insurance industry like to perpetuate ...that these incidences are not frequent...but they are....

[Duval]

45. Tragic beyond words.

I wonder what "in due time" means. Sorry to be so skeptical, but in light of this year's foibles, I can never be sure until it happens.

[Overseas]

49. K&R. So very sad. And so very mean of the hospital.

[hedgehog]

50. I'm tempted to tell my story of an incompetent ER, but I don't want to distract from the

topic of the quality of medical care given African-Americans.

[pnwmom]

76. I'm remembering you are female, right? And women are another group

that tends to be under-treated compared to white men. So she had two strikes against her.

Studies have shown that women with heart attacks are less likely to get proper treatment than men.

[KentuckyWoman]

89. Well it's really hit and miss.

My husband, a white man with good insurance, was nearly left to die because of wrong assumptions and basic incompetence at the ER of a very well regarded hospital. On the flip side the staff at one of those "wouldn't take my dead dog there" hospitals kicked in and saved his life.

The thing with the "bad" hospital was that they do so much indigent care and see so many awful things that they long ago created a culture of doing the right thing for anyone who presents to the ER rather than making assumptions based on social stereotypes.

[Doctor_J]

51. didn't you already post this in gd?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7469595

[pnwmom]

59. No. The autopsy has been released since that report came out yesterday.

This is a new story with more information.

[malaise]

58. Murder by hospital

Sue them

[FrodosPet]

67. MAYBE it was that she was black, but other people get sent home too early as well

I've picked up too many people at the hospital who should NOT have been leaving. A few I took back and had to tell the ER security that there was no way this person can even get out of my cab under their own power. And I am neither trained nor insured as medical transport, so I cannot physically assist them.

The case that pissed me off most was the shaking guy, smelling like urine, sent "home". Which consisted of some sheet plastic and cardboard in the woods behind a warehouse. In 30 degree temperatures.

I cannot kidnap someone. He wanted out, so I had to let him out. Then I went straight home, yelling and cussing like the sailor I was (am), and called adult protective services.

They asked if I called the police. I told them "No, I want this poor man to get some help, not arrested".

[pnwmom]

68. Of course. And studies show that women are more likely to be under-treated than men.

I think she had two strikes against her: being female and being black. But, yes, white men can be misdiagnosed and under-treated as well.

It is AWFUL that you have been put in this kind of position. Wold it be possible for you to call 911, rather than the police?

[FrodosPet]

83. I figured calling 911 WAS calling the police

One of the things that really struck me was that this guy, living rough, in need of the money even more than me, refused my offer of a free ride. He had pride. He received something, he was going to pay.

Yet rich assholes pull up to their McMansions, stiff the tip and argue about the fare.

[valerief]

70. Friggin' tragic. Never go to anything named Liberty. Those physicians should be arrested for

criminal negligence.

[blackspade]

77. Unreal.

The medical staff killed this poor woman.

[Number23]

80. Good Lord. That is simply heartbreaking

Why couldn't they have just let her sit in the waiting room? Why did the cops need to be called for this?

Where was that hospital's duty of care??

[MerryBlooms]

82. I hope every one involved in this woman's murder

is cursed with daily soul shuddering guilt and weeping, along with an eternity of sleepless nights.

There's a huge lawsuit here.

Gawd, so fucking despicable.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

85. It is a disgrace that she was discharged.

the doctors should be struck off for discharging her. My guess if she was white she would not have been discharged?

[pnwmom]

87. Being female was a disadvantage, too. Studies have shown that women

having heart attacks are less likely to be diagnosed; it's probably true with pulmonary embolisms, too.

[craigmatic]

91. Just because they're doctors doesn't mean they give a fuck.

[Person 2713]

92. She died because she was not thoroughly examined for her symptoms she was reporting to ER

And the hospital calls the police when she insists she isn't well

[pnwmom]

93. That sums it up.

And it makes me furious, too.

She needed drugs to deal with the clot and instead she got handcuffs.