African-American woman dies after being forcefully removed from hospital

When Barbara Dawson, 57, refused to leave the emergency room and demanded further treatment, police were called and she was handcuffed, forcibly removed and placed into a police auto.

Barbara Dawson, 57, went to Calhoun-Liberty Hospital on Sunday night complaining of stomach pains.

Does a hospital bear culpability for the death of Florida woman, Barbara Dawson after forcing her to leave a hospital?

When officers arrived, they handcuffed Dawson, who her family stated in the report, used oxygen “24-7”, and attempted to place her in the police vehicle.

Following a meeting with 14th Judicial Circuit prosecutors and BPD Chief Mark Mallory Mallory Wednesday, FDLE is looking into the events that led to Dawson’s death. He says doctors thought Dawson was stable and should be released but that she felt as if she still had breathing issues and wanted to stay.

‘The most reasonable thing to do is to let her sit there and be able to settle down until she felt well. ‘The early facts of this case should cause a great concern for everyone’.

The aunt of the woman who died said she called her name several times but she never responded.

Relatives told the Tallahassee Democrat that Dawson had asked for hospital staff to return her oxygen tank, but they said Dawson did not need it. When she was outside the hospital, she “pleaded for her oxygen”, according to the paper. Ms. Dawson continued to refuse to cooperate at this time, and the officer took her into custody.

Mallory said dashcam footage from the officer’s auto does not show the incident but does pick up the audio. She worked at a county facility with people with disabilities until she was injured on the job, a contributing factor to her declining health, family members told the Tallahassee Democrat.

Less than two hours later, at 6.24am, she was pronounced dead. According to the authorities, she was reportedly abusive to the staff after they had released the woman.

Dawson was eventually arrested for disorderly conduct and trespassing. “They got the doctor to come out there and get a pulse of her and they couldn’t get no pulse”.

At that point, Dawson collapsed before she was put inside the police vehicle.

“If her death was wrongfully determined, then somehow, someway, there needs to be some sort of recompense to the family”, Dale Landry of the Florida NAACP said in a statement.

Landry told the Associated Press he and others “strongly believe the death was due to negligence by the police department and hospital”.