Dash Cam Video from Woman’s Hospital Death Released
BLOUNTSTOWN, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – Questions remain in the case of a panhandle woman who went to her local hospital
just before Christmas complaining about feeling ill, and then died while being removed from the facility by police.
The family’s attorneys released the dash cam video Wednesday morning and they say authorities are the reason she’s dead.
A more than two and a half hour video released by the attorneys of Barbara Dawson Wednesday morning doesn’t show much of the 57-year-old panhandle woman, but includes plenty of audio during the moments before her death.
Attorney Daryl Parks says the video shows police didn’t handle the situation correctly.
“The time that this incident starts to happen, to the time that she’s getting CPR, you have almost 30 minutes of lapses there. She didn’t have any real care until they started giving her CPR and bringing her to the trauma unit there at the hospital,” Parks asserted.
Dawson was removed from the Calhoun-Liberty Hospital December 21st, but pleaded that she still needed help. Her oxygen tank was unhooked and she collapsed in the parking lot before later dying.
State representative Daryl Rouson is also advising the family on the case. He explained, “We think they what they did was put criminality over healthcare.”
An incident report from the Blountstown Police said officers thought Dawson was being non-compliant. Her attorneys say that assumption is the reason she’s dead.
Dawson’s aunt was at the scene, and cousin Martha Smith-Dickson was emotional before she even viewed the tape.
“We want justice for Barbara so this will not happen to anyone else,” Smith-Dickson said.
An autopsy report indicated Dawson died of a blood clot in her lungs. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Agency for Health Care Administration have launched investigations.
The Blountstown Police Department released a statement refuting Dawson’s attorney’s claims saying, in part, “The responding officer acted appropriately and sought medical attention within one minute of Dawson collapsing.”
Filed under: General Problems
I hope they also sue the p*ss out of the hospital and win both suits. Of course, the money won’t bring her back, but maybe it will change some things. This poor lady was crying as she begged them not to release her as they were removing her oxygen tube from their oxygen (they actually cut her tube, according to a couple of articles I’ve read) her tube. How vicious and inhumane can a medical community be?!! Had a veterinarian treated someone’s dog with this much neglect and cruelty, there’d be much more outrage!
I can’t even imagine how much she suffered! She was assumed to be a “drug seeker” (as so many others have went through) and she lost her life. I have to wonder how many others have been treated this way, sent home, then died (their death never linked to the doctor or the ER they visited). Our government and its corrupt, overly-funded, too powerful, unneeded, financially-motivated, greedy bureaucratic agencies (DEA, CDC, FDA, to name a few) need to be reigned in, defunded or eliminated.
She should have never been discharged from the hospital and had the police called on her to forcibly remove her when she knew something was gravely wrong with her. Doctors are so focused on people possibly seeking drugs and they assume everybody is there for drugs so they dismiss this woman as if she did not matter. And this has nothing at all to do with skin color (black brown white and any shade in between). This is happening to chronic pain patients all over the country and has been for a while now. The war on drugs has become a war on pain patients. It’s high time we make some noise before we are truly killed off by this insane government!
I believe that my wife would own the whole County. If I were this family is wouldn’t stop until every person involved was in prison. Florida is still a capital punishment state and I would make sure that everyone who was involved in the outright murder of this woman was exicuted for murder 1. Ignorance is no excuse for murder and this was not a mistake, it was wrongful death due to negligence due to premeditation and that’s murder.
Once these people start getting prosecuted for their crimes, patients will stop dying. The family and friends should push for this and make sure it’s known nation wide. Yes I know that this is a far fetched statement but until those who cannot speak for themselves are spoken for, they won’t get justice. If a child was intentionally staved to death, that person would be prosecuted for capital murder so why wouldn’t a person who killed someone for refusing treatment?
I agree wholeheartedly and I hope they get BIG BIG money to make these jackholes pay!!! It will not bring back their loved one but it will possibly hurt their pocket book so much that it will act as a deterrent to other hospitals who want to treat sick people this way. It will not bring this poor lady back to her family but it can possibly prevent this from happening to others. My heart breaks for this woman and her family. I love my country but I fear my government.