Woman Dies Right After Being Escorted From Hospital In Handcuffs

A 57-year-old woman died Monday after she was arrested and forcibly removed by police from a Florida hospital, where her family says she was denied care, according to a Tallahassee Democrat report.

Dawson showed up at Calhoun Liberty around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night, according to police, seeking treatment for stomach pains.

Hospital staff called police in the early hours of Monday morning because she wouldn’t leave. Dawson was being charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. Barbara Dawson, 57, went to the hospital for breathing troubles, NBC News reported. After she was declared healthy and discharged, Dawson insisted that she was still unwell, demanded further treatment, and refused to leave the hospital. As the officer unlocked the door to his patrol vehicle, Dawson collapsed on the ground.

Dawson died shortly after being taken into the hospital. Our officer asked an aunt, who was present in the room, if she could take her home. Audio from the squad car’s dashboard camera will be released before Friday, but the camera did not capture video of the incident.

“The most reasonable thing to do is to let her sit there and be able to settle down until she felt well”. Dawson collapsed when she arrived at the police auto, officials told NBC, and was re-admitted to the hospital and pronounced dead an hour later. He says they won’t have final answers until autopsy results come in.

Both Attaway and Dawson’s family said the woman had a fraught history with the hospital staff. The staff had called police on her in the past to get her off the property.

Blountstown police said they would continue an internal investigation and that they have requested an independent probe by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Instead, she is forcibly removed and placed in cuffs. The family is now planning to sue the hospital and police.

“Even the early facts should cause grave concern for her family”, Darryl Parks, of the law firm Parks and Crump, told the paper, “but also grave concern for the public”. Meanwhile, the Calhoun-Liberty County NAACP says they want justice for those responsible for the death.

The Tallahassee NAACP is investigating.

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”.