Hospital Staff Fired For Allegedly Denying Mother Labor Care
Hospital Staff Fired After Allegedly Denying Mother Labor Care, Forcing A Highway Birth
A doctor and nurse at an Indiana hospital who turned away Mercedes Wells and her husband as she was minutes from giving birth are no longer employed, according to officials at Franciscan Health Crown Point.
“The physician and the nurse directly involved with Mrs. Wells’ care are no longer employed by Franciscan,” Franciscan Health Crown Point President and CEO Raymond Grady told PEOPLE in a statement on Friday, Nov. 21.
What happened to Mercedes and Leon Wells?
On Nov. 16, Mercedes and her husband, Leon, arrived at Franciscan Health Crown Point after calling ahead the day before. But when they got there, Mercedes said staff instructed them to return home and wait for her labor to progress, ABC station WLS previously reported. Just eight minutes later, she gave birth to her daughter on the side of the highway.
“Get on the expressway, two minutes in, I’m like, ‘I have to push.’ So I started pulling my pants down. I’m like, ‘Please help me, because I need help pulling my pants off so I can get this baby out,’” Mercedes told Fox 32 Chicago, recalling the frightening ordeal. When she pushed the first time, the baby’s head emerged. “The second time I pushed, she came out,” she said. Leon caught their newborn with no medical assistance.
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Cell phone footage obtained by ABC News captured Mercedes — now a mother of four — crying and breathing heavily in a wheelchair inside the hospital before being escorted out by security. Moments later, she’s seen holding her newborn daughter, Alena, in the car.
Mercedes Wells believes the nurse she encountered was inexperienced.
Mercedes told Fox 32 Chicago that she pleaded not to be discharged, saying an inexperienced nurse claimed she was only three centimeters dilated despite six hours of labor. Thankfully, Alena, a healthy six pounds, was later taken to Community Hospital in Munster for proper care.
In an interview with CBS News Chicago, Mercedes said that when she first arrived, she “was met with really stern faces — no welcoming faces as I usually would get when I go to a hospital or a place of care.” She added that while she was in “excruciating pain” and “agony,” the nurse insisted she wasn’t far enough along to be admitted, even though her contractions were just one minute apart.
Franciscan Health Crown Point has launched an investigation into the incident.
Grady said the hospital has launched an investigation, noting the actions of the nurse and physician involved do not “reflect the values of Franciscan Health Crown Point, which include respect for life and compassionate concern.” He acknowledged, “The video was difficult to watch,” and added, “Compassionate concern is absent when a caregiver fails to listen to a patient who is clearly in pain and vulnerable. We failed to listen to Mrs. Wells’ concerns. As an experienced mother who publicly acknowledged having previously given birth at our hospital with a positive experience, she knew something was not right.”
“We must fix what failed in our hospital so that no one experiences what happened to Mercedes Wells,” he continued.
After being turned away, the Wells family retained an attorney, alleging they were treated unfairly because they are Black, according to PEOPLE.
Beyond terminating the doctor and nurse, Grady said he has “mandated cultural competency training for all labor and delivery staff” and required that “all pregnant patients leaving the Labor and Delivery unit will be examined by a physician before they leave the hospital.”
“On behalf of Franciscan Alliance and Franciscan Health Crown Point, I apologize to Mrs. Wells and her family for failing to live up to our Franciscan values,” Grady said. “We are committed to holding ourselves accountable through our actions so that every patient is heard and receives compassionate, equitable care. Any evidence of actions to the contrary will not be tolerated.”
Grady added that he has reached out to Mercedes and hopes to meet with her and her husband soon.
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