FL woman dies from blood clot after being forcibly removed from hospital

woman has died from a pulmonary embolism after she was handcuffed and forcibly removed from a hospital where she was seeking treatment for breathing difficulties.

Barbara Dawson, 57, was rushed to Liberty Calhoun Hospital, in Blountstown in Florida, via ambulance initially complaining of stomach pains on Sunday evening.

    

Within a few hours, she was cleared to go home by hospital staff and discharged. But when Dawson insisted that she was ‘still was not feeling well’ and needed further treatment, her family claim she was swiftly banned from the hospital.

Staff called the police at 4.45am on Monday who arrived at the center and arrested Dawson for disorderly conduct and trespassing.

She was handcuffed, forcibly removed from the hospital and put in the back of the officer’s car while her distraught family ‘pleaded for her to have oxygen’ as she was having breathing difficulties.

They say a nurse refused to give them Dawson’s oxygen tank because they had found she was breathing fine.

When the officer opened the door to his patrol car, the 57 year old collapsed to the ground – still wearing handcuffs.

Mallory said after Dawson collapsed her handcuffs were removed and the arresting officer quickly signaled for medical help.

Hospital staff checked her vital signs three times and said the patient was ‘fine’ but they were overruled by a doctor who readmitted her.

‘We were told by a doctor once she got back in the hospital that her vital signs were good and it was their decision to readmit her,’ Mallory said.

Less than two hours later, at 6.24am, she was pronounced dead.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials have been called in to investigate, department spokesman Steve Arthur said.

Blountstown Police chief Mark Mallory said in a statement Wednesday that the medical examiner’s office in Panama City found that Dawson died from blood clots on her lungs due to being excessively overweight.

The autopsy report, police report and dashcam footage of the incident have not yet been released.

Mallory said dashcam footage from the officer’s car does not show the incident but does pick up the audio.

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

But her relatives disagree and allege that she was mistreated by police and by the hospital staff, who they say refused to provide proper medical care.

They are now planning to file a lawsuit against the hospital and possibly the Blountstown Police Department.

While doctors initially thought Dawson was stable and should be released, she felt like she was still having breathing issues and wanted to stay, said Tallahassee attorney Daryl Parks, who is representing Dawson’s family.

‘The most reasonable thing to do is to let her sit there and be able to settle down until she felt well. Instead, she is forcibly removed and put in cuffs,’ Parks said. ‘The early facts of this case should cause a great concern for everyone.’

The local NAACP chapter held an emergency meeting on the matter Tuesday afternoon. Dale R. Landry, who is the regional vice president for the Florida State chapter of the NAACP, met with local leaders and the family.

Landry said he and others are glad state law enforcement officers are getting involved, ‘but we strongly believe the death was due to negligence by the police department and hospital’.

Source: The Dailymail