Officials Defend Treatment Of Homeless Mother Who Died After Being Taken From ER To Jail

March 30th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

Source: MSNBC

Officials at St. Mary’s Health Center in St. Louis are claiming the treatment they gave a 29-year-old homeless woman who went to the hospital for a sprained ankle and later died in police custody after refusing to leave the ER, appropriate.

Anna Brown’s September death inside a St. Louis jail cell was determined to be caused by blood clots that formed in her legs and migrated to her lungs. Brown reportedly went to three hospitals complaining of leg pain in the days prior to her death, including the visit to St. Mary’s that led to her arrest for trespassing. Brown was wheeled out of the facility in handcuffs after a doctor said she was healthy enough to be locked up and  officers say they had no reason to think otherwise.

“A lot of times people don’t want to stay in jail and will claim to be sick,” Acting Police Chief Maj. Roy Wright said. “We depend on medical officials to tell us they’re OK.”

According to an official statement from St. Mary’s, to the best of their knowledge she was.

“Unfortunately, even with appropriate testing using sophisticated technology, blood clots can still be undetected in a small number of cases,” they said. “The sad reality is that emergency departments across the country are often a place of last resort for many people in our society who suffer from complex social problems that become medical issues when they are not addressed. It is unfortunate that it takes a tragic event like this to call attention to a crisis in our midst.”

Brown’s life had been on a downward spiral since a tornado destroyed her home in 2010. The mother moved to a St. Louis suburb with her children following the tragedy, but shortly after she lost her job in a sandwich shop. Because Brown couldn’t pay her bills, her utilities were shut off and when a child welfare agent visited her home in April, the toilet was found filled with feces and there were burn marks on the floor where she had lit fires to keep warm. Brown was arrested for parental neglect and her mother, Dorothy Davis, received custody of her children on the condition that their mother couldn’t also live with them. With her home condemned, Brown lived in four homeless shelters from May until September. She also joined the St. Louis Empowerment Center, a drop-in center for the mentally ill.

Davis says her daughter called everyday to check on her children, and now she has a responsibility to tell them what happened to their mother.

“If the police killed my daughter, I want to know. If the hospital is at fault, I want to know,” she told the Post-Dispatch. “I want to be able to tell her children why their mother isn’t here.”

The family believes Brown was treated unfairly and they’ve hired a lawyer to help them prove it. According to Brown’s sister Krystle:

“My sister is not here today because people passed judgment.”

What do you think about this case? Is anyone at fault for Anna Brown’s death?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

More on Madame Noire!

Tags:

, , , , ,
More from StyleBlazer
More from MommyNoire

Comment Disclaimer

Comments that contain profane or derogatory language, video links or exceed 200 words will require approval by a moderator before appearing in the comment section. XOXO-MN

  • FromUR2UB

    I doubt that the hospital even examined her.  As soon as they learned that she had no insurance or ability to pay, they probably asked her to leave.

  • Angelb_12

    Sad how family is period, don’t know the full story let their concious be their guide. 2. hospitals and law authorities always are ruling, sad what happen, however that’s the price you pay when the world and system labels individuals. the truth lies between four God, the decease, the officers, and the hospital. now the young innocent has to go on live a life without their mother. wish they are in better hands  

  • Asyde901

    oh please. not that sad, this happens everyday in our hospital. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=634326532 Joy Elizabeth Foggia

    The hospital said that their ER was a “last resort” for “many people in our society who suffer from complex social problems that become medical issues when they are not addressed.” This was NOT a social problem for the ER. This was a MEDICAL problem that the hospital did not care enough to address because the patient was a poor black women who couldn’t afford to pay. That is the REAL reason why she died. The hospital must now prove that they did not discriminate against her by proving that they gave her every single test before releasing her that they would give to a person of affluence. I’m glad the poor woman’s family has an attorney. Those poor children. And where was the children’s father during all of this mess? He is responsible as well. Single mothers suffer the most because of selfish, irresponsible fathers who don’t care enough to properly support they children they brought into this world.

  • Lisa_smith53

    She has a sister and a Mother. I don’t understand why she was ever homeless…. But then again I don’t know the whole story. Sad story and situation.

  • Daniellern2md

    I am a nurse in the ER and see docs and nurses mistreat and undertreat the homeless.

  • thomasclemons5

    Police and the hospital are responsible for her dying.

  • L-Boogie

    The more I read the more depressed I get.  This is truly sad.

  • Lcgilstrap2012

    When r we as a black America gonna do something about our injustice becus of our situations & race?

    • Human Being

      ..When are we as a Americans gonna do something about injustice. This happens far to often with any race or color.

  • ariesdollface

    omg, this story breaks my heart. it’s horrible b/c this one situation is endemic of so many ills in American society one of which is America’s contempt for poor people. for social services to make a condition of her children staying w/in the family be their refusal to house her is horrible! most homeless shelters are temporary domains; there’s no universal healthcare; black ppl are automatically criminalized; mental health diseases/disorders are stigmatized &/or ignored, i mean OMG! the list is endless. sad. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=433408 Shana Gillis

    “Unfortunately, even with appropriate testing using sophisticated technology, blood clots can still be undetected in a small number of cases.” this statement is a side-stepping mess. did they bother to test at all? if they tested and didn’t detect any blood clots, that is one thing, but if they didn’t bother to test at all, they are in the wrong.  the “even with” implies they didn’t test.  the “appropriate” implies that her complaints may have been consistent with clotting issues.

  • http://www.noneedforastinkingwebsite.com dow daytrader

    pretty sure DEMOCRATS run the Police department, City Hall and probably a Democrat Nurse refused to admit her.  

    So, tell me how Democrats and their “war on poverty”, how’z that Nope and Change workin’ fer ya????

    • Tiffanyj

      What do politics have to do with it? Its about morally making the right decision when it comes to human life.  God Bless these doctors with knowledge they should apply it especially with people that are in her situation in need of medical attention.

      • http://www.noneedforastinkingwebsite.com dow daytrader

        Democrats reward behavior that does not follow moral standards…btw, after 20 trillion dollars of spending on the “war on poverty”, the % of poor people in the USA is the same, and more than a third of all newborns are born into single parent homes, which is proven to increase chances of poverty and crime.  

        70% of ALL jail inmates come from single parent homes.  Doubt me?  google it.  

        • Nina Dashotta

          Shut up and stop trying to use this woman’s death as one of those republican ploys to down Obama. Nothing like a republiNUT to insert your mistaken intelligence into anything that has nothing to do with politics. Bipolar a***s

        • FromUR2UB

          Since you used this as an excuse to tear down democrats and single mothers, it’s obvious that these are obsessions for you.  It must be awfully exhausting to be so hateful all the time.  It’s Sunday.  Do you ever take a day off?

          • http://www.noneedforastinkingwebsite.com dow daytrader

            deal with the causes of the issue, not the symptoms….name me the Federal programs that actually SOLVED a problem….you can’t because they make the problem worse or prolong the suffering.  

            The causes of her being homeless were precisely the government programs and regulations that kill off jobs, create housing bubbles then the inevitable crashes that follow the bubbles.  

            Why didn’t Obama’s Hope and Change fix the situation??? Can’t blame Bush on this one, but guaranteed you would blame Bush if he was in office and this happened 

            Keep believing “Myths” and passing blame to others, see how far that will ‘get ya’ ….

  • Sickofit

    This is 2012, not 1912, clots are easily detectible with a simple ultrasound machine.  No excuse for this.  They killed this woman through their neglect.

    • Smacks_hoes

      That’s not exactly true. Sometimes clots are undetected.

  • M Emile1

    If her family really cared, they would have provided her with the proper support to prevent her from being homeless. It is amazing how people who didn’t care for you when you were alive act like they care when you are dead. It’s not like she was homeless due to drug use, she lost her home to a tornado and unemployment and no one in her family reached out. Her family should be ashamed.

    • JN31

      It isn’t fair to assume the family didn’t help her. The article notes “Dorothy Davis, received custody of her children on the condition that their mother couldn’t also live with them” so it seems as if the court system made it so that she couldn’t stay. No one knows the financial burdens her other family could have been suffering or their living situation to say that they could have also housed her. Her family is not at fault. The hospital saw her as an addict and wanted her out. The police department isn’t trained on sensitivity and it doesn’t take the smartest person to be an officer; they tend to block out common sense and empathy.

    • FromUR2UB

      It’s possible that her family didn’t know how bad things were until it was too late.  Sometimes people don’t want to be a burden, so they don’t ask for help or tell people everything that’s going on. 

  • darkman

    This is a terrible and sad story. Once again, jugement prevails instead of professionalism. 3 hospitals failed her, it’s totally unacceptable.
    The worse is to learn how  an ordinary life derailed to this end, just starting by a tornado. It means for all of us, trouble is guaranteed under the Murphy Law. As for the family, they may not have done the right thing (8 siblings and no one to shelter her?), but I’m guessing they’ll be kind with Anna’s kids (with their law suit money…).

  • disgustedBYthis

    who cares why her sister couldn’t take her in, this is a simple case, like her sister said this is about judgement. they wouldn’t take her back and the hospital didn’t care enough about her to help. SMFH.

  • Gina

    Why couldn’t her sister take her in? Doesnt make sense.