Tuvia Bielski
Contributing Member
This could probably have been avoided if the staff had monitored her SpO2 (oxygen saturation). I presume they did, but since she was given Oxygen, it could have easily masked the problem until she was kicked out.
I expect this kind of the thing to increase now that health care is administered and paid for increasingly by the state. Those in charge who previously were more compassionate are being replaced by those who are more callous.
----------------------------
Recordings Add Detail in Death of Woman Forced From Florida Hospital
State officials in Florida are investigating the death of a 57-year-old woman who was removed from a hospital by a police officer last month and then spent about 20 minutes on the ground in the parking lot before later being pronounced dead.
The patient, Barbara Dawson, can be heard on audio and seen on video released by lawyers for her family, who accused the Calhoun Liberty Hospital in Blountstown, Fla., of negligence. The recordings, more than two hours long, provide further details to the Blountstown Police Department report published last month.
Ms. Dawson’s death is being investigated by three state agencies, including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is reconstructing a timeline and conducting interviews. Investigators will give their findings to the state attorney, who will decide whether any further action, including possible charges, is needed, a spokesman, Steve Arthur, said Thursday.
The Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Health are also investigating, the hospital said. “Our primary objective in this situation is to remain transparent and to welcome investigation from authorities,” the hospital’s chief executive, Ruth Attaway, said in a statement.
A lawyer for the family, Darryl Parks, told local reporters that the video showed that Ms. Dawson, who was black, was not given timely care by the hospital in Blountstown, which is about 50 miles from Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle.
“We have heard that time and time again how everyone was acting with due speed to assist her,” Mr. Parks is quoted saying. “There was not deliberate speed, and who was assessing her at the side of the car was inconsistent.”
Sandi Poreda, a hospital spokeswoman, said privacy concerns prevented her from discussing Ms. Dawson’s initial symptoms, but the police report said she had complained about a pain in her abdomen. Ms. Poreda said Ms. Dawson was given a full range of tests and treatments in the emergency room.
The report showed that just before 5 a.m. on Dec. 21, a police officer, identified as John H. Tadlock Jr., was called to the hospital when Ms. Dawson refused to leave after being discharged.
Ms. Poreda said the police had been called 13 times in 2015 to remove patients, although she declined to discuss hospital policy on when they are summoned. “The only time is if there is a concern for other patients’ care, recovery or safety,” Ms. Poreda said. “There was no indication that the hospital staff’s response was out of the ordinary.”
As Christmas music plays in the background, Officer Tadlock, who is wearing a body microphone, can be heard in the video trying to persuade Ms. Dawson to leave, saying she needs to seek treatment elsewhere if she still feels sick.
He tells her that she faces charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing, the police report said.
“You need to leave my room. You need to just leave. I am really feeling sick here,” Ms. Dawson says on the audio. And then, “I can’t breathe.”
“I am not feeling good,” Ms. Dawson says, sounding out of breath as she pleads with the officer and staff. “I can’t even hardly breathe.” The officer urges her to walk out peacefully.
At one point, Officer Tadlock tried to take off the oxygen hose she was wearing, but she struggled, according to the police report. He then disconnected it from a port in the wall. A female voice, apparently a medical staff member, says on the video, “You have been breathing just fine.”
Eventually, the officer handcuffs Ms. Dawson, who he says was “resisting arrest,” and takes her outside.
“I had to push her from behind to get her to go with me,” the officer wrote in the report. As she neared the police cruiser, Ms. Dawson fell, leading the officer to believe that she “was making herself dead weight in an effort to avoid going to jail.”
Over the next 20 minutes or so, Ms. Dawson is largely silent and unseen in the police dashboard camera video. Glimpses of the officer and medical staff can be seen as they struggle to get Ms. Dawson into the car from where she has fallen just outside the rear door.
At one point, she is told to “stand up now” and that she is making things worse. A nurse takes Ms. Dawson’s vital signs repeatedly, and a woman can be heard saying: “Come on now. There ain’t nothing wrong with you.”
The officer and a woman can be seen trying to pull Ms. Dawson, who weighed 270 pounds, into the back seat.
“You are going to go to jail one way or the other,” a voice says on the recording.
Officer Tadlock then calls for a transport vehicle to take her to jail, saying that her weight makes it impossible for him to take her. When it does not come, a wheelchair is brought out, then a stretcher.
At that point, the report said, the doctor who had discharged her, Stewart Warren, approached. “This is totally different than what she was when I was discharging her,” Dr. Warren said, and ordered her to be readmitted.
“All right, Ms. Dawson you are going to stay at the hospital,” a man says as he urges her to get up and onto the stretcher. “That’s what you wanted.”
As she is wheeled into the hospital, “Silent Night” can be heard playing over the speakers.
Ms. Dawson was pronounced dead at 6:24 a.m., the police report said.
The cause of death was a “pulmonary saddle embolism,” or a blood clot on the branch of the main arteries in her lungs, an investigator with the medical examiner, Whit Majors, said on Thursday.
I expect this kind of the thing to increase now that health care is administered and paid for increasingly by the state. Those in charge who previously were more compassionate are being replaced by those who are more callous.
----------------------------
Recordings Add Detail in Death of Woman Forced From Florida Hospital
State officials in Florida are investigating the death of a 57-year-old woman who was removed from a hospital by a police officer last month and then spent about 20 minutes on the ground in the parking lot before later being pronounced dead.
The patient, Barbara Dawson, can be heard on audio and seen on video released by lawyers for her family, who accused the Calhoun Liberty Hospital in Blountstown, Fla., of negligence. The recordings, more than two hours long, provide further details to the Blountstown Police Department report published last month.
Ms. Dawson’s death is being investigated by three state agencies, including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is reconstructing a timeline and conducting interviews. Investigators will give their findings to the state attorney, who will decide whether any further action, including possible charges, is needed, a spokesman, Steve Arthur, said Thursday.
The Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Health are also investigating, the hospital said. “Our primary objective in this situation is to remain transparent and to welcome investigation from authorities,” the hospital’s chief executive, Ruth Attaway, said in a statement.
A lawyer for the family, Darryl Parks, told local reporters that the video showed that Ms. Dawson, who was black, was not given timely care by the hospital in Blountstown, which is about 50 miles from Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle.
“We have heard that time and time again how everyone was acting with due speed to assist her,” Mr. Parks is quoted saying. “There was not deliberate speed, and who was assessing her at the side of the car was inconsistent.”
Sandi Poreda, a hospital spokeswoman, said privacy concerns prevented her from discussing Ms. Dawson’s initial symptoms, but the police report said she had complained about a pain in her abdomen. Ms. Poreda said Ms. Dawson was given a full range of tests and treatments in the emergency room.
The report showed that just before 5 a.m. on Dec. 21, a police officer, identified as John H. Tadlock Jr., was called to the hospital when Ms. Dawson refused to leave after being discharged.
Ms. Poreda said the police had been called 13 times in 2015 to remove patients, although she declined to discuss hospital policy on when they are summoned. “The only time is if there is a concern for other patients’ care, recovery or safety,” Ms. Poreda said. “There was no indication that the hospital staff’s response was out of the ordinary.”
As Christmas music plays in the background, Officer Tadlock, who is wearing a body microphone, can be heard in the video trying to persuade Ms. Dawson to leave, saying she needs to seek treatment elsewhere if she still feels sick.
He tells her that she faces charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing, the police report said.
“You need to leave my room. You need to just leave. I am really feeling sick here,” Ms. Dawson says on the audio. And then, “I can’t breathe.”
“I am not feeling good,” Ms. Dawson says, sounding out of breath as she pleads with the officer and staff. “I can’t even hardly breathe.” The officer urges her to walk out peacefully.
At one point, Officer Tadlock tried to take off the oxygen hose she was wearing, but she struggled, according to the police report. He then disconnected it from a port in the wall. A female voice, apparently a medical staff member, says on the video, “You have been breathing just fine.”
Eventually, the officer handcuffs Ms. Dawson, who he says was “resisting arrest,” and takes her outside.
“I had to push her from behind to get her to go with me,” the officer wrote in the report. As she neared the police cruiser, Ms. Dawson fell, leading the officer to believe that she “was making herself dead weight in an effort to avoid going to jail.”
Over the next 20 minutes or so, Ms. Dawson is largely silent and unseen in the police dashboard camera video. Glimpses of the officer and medical staff can be seen as they struggle to get Ms. Dawson into the car from where she has fallen just outside the rear door.
At one point, she is told to “stand up now” and that she is making things worse. A nurse takes Ms. Dawson’s vital signs repeatedly, and a woman can be heard saying: “Come on now. There ain’t nothing wrong with you.”
The officer and a woman can be seen trying to pull Ms. Dawson, who weighed 270 pounds, into the back seat.
“You are going to go to jail one way or the other,” a voice says on the recording.
Officer Tadlock then calls for a transport vehicle to take her to jail, saying that her weight makes it impossible for him to take her. When it does not come, a wheelchair is brought out, then a stretcher.
At that point, the report said, the doctor who had discharged her, Stewart Warren, approached. “This is totally different than what she was when I was discharging her,” Dr. Warren said, and ordered her to be readmitted.
“All right, Ms. Dawson you are going to stay at the hospital,” a man says as he urges her to get up and onto the stretcher. “That’s what you wanted.”
As she is wheeled into the hospital, “Silent Night” can be heard playing over the speakers.
Ms. Dawson was pronounced dead at 6:24 a.m., the police report said.
The cause of death was a “pulmonary saddle embolism,” or a blood clot on the branch of the main arteries in her lungs, an investigator with the medical examiner, Whit Majors, said on Thursday.
Last edited:
