Four American paramedics have faced widespread criticism, and now their jobs are on the line, after the family of a mum-of-three said she was racially profiled while dying – with the emergency responders accused of focusing on her income rather than her treatment.
The Florida woman was eventually driven to the hospital by her mother because paramedics assumed she wouldn’t be able to afford the ambulance, the BBC reports. She died five days later.
The medics remain on paid leave. At a pre-disciplinary hearing earlier today, officials said they needed more time to investigate the incident, local news station WFLA-TV reported.
Crystle Galloway, 30, had given birth by caesarean section to her third child one week before the emergency call last month.
"I found her in the bathroom drooling from the mouth, lip getting bigger, so I thought at first she hit her head on the toilet," Galloway’s mother told dispatchers, according to a recording of the call.
But when the paramedics arrived, they didn’t check the patient’s vital signs, her blood pressure or to see if her pupils were dilated, her mother told WFLA-TV. Instead, she said, they focused on how much a trip to the hospital via ambulance would cost.
"They never checked nothing," Nicole Black said. "They kept asking her over and over, 'Do you want to go to the hospital?' She kept begging and telling them yes."
Ambulance rides in the US can cost patients hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on insurance coverage.
In a press conference this week, Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill didn’t mince words: "My guys did a lot of things wrong here and we take responsibility. If it’s a culture of racism, that’s something that needs to be fixed."
Merrill also said the medics had falsely claimed in a report that they hadn’t been able to locate the woman after the emergency call.
In separate written statements, each of the four paramedics described the call out as brief and cordial, according to the Tampa Bay Times. They said the family refused their service, speeding off before they could complete the job.
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