Via the daily link roundup at FWD/Forward comes this really horrifying story out of Chicago about a woman who was arrested for assaulting paramedics. The accused woman was having a seizure at the time.
Kourtney Wilson, 23, was charged with assaulting three paramedics. But Kourtney says that’s impossible because she was in the midst of a seizure. And she says, what she deserved was treatment, not a trip to jail.
“I’ve had many seizures and been in the hands of many paramedics, and I’ve never had such an awful experience,” Kourtney said.
Kourtney has a history of lupus, and around 12:30 Monday afternoon, she had a seizure at her Woodlawn home.
“She just started shaking, violently shaking and her teeth were clattering,” said Tiffini Williams, Wilson’s roommate.
That’s when Tiffini called 911and paramedics responded.
“I just remember being strapped down, feeling like I was in a straitjacket, and I just kept taking off the strap, like ‘please no, please no’, not really understanding everything that was going on,” Kourtney said.
But Tiffini repeatedly confronted the paramedics about what she saw as heavy-handed tactics, telling them, “‘I called you all to help her but you’re being too rough with her. It’s almost like you’re assaulting her.’ As soon as I said that, one of the EMT guys pointed to Kourtney and says, ‘you’re going to jail.'”
Kourtney says she was dragged down the stairs of her house in handcuffs to a waiting police car.
But it gets even worse than paramedics calling police and making assault allegations against a woman who would have had extremely little control over her bodily movements at the time, and who was in critical need of their care.
She was taken first to Grand Crossing District on 71st, then to South Shore Hospital, then to the Pullman District on 111th Street, and finally, to Roseland Hospital. There, she finally got treatment.
“They drug tested me and then they provided me with an IV of seizure medication. By then, it was about 10:00 at night,” Kourtney said.
In other words, she received treatment about nine hours after her arrest. And her release papers confirm her diagnosis as “seizure disorder.”
They didn’t only call the police — they also withheld care.
It should go without saying that paramedics have the right to do their job without being assaulted, and to call for help if they are assaulted. But it should also go without saying that having a seizure and struggling against (allegedly heavy-handed) care while in a state of confusion do not count as assault. And I find it difficult to imagine any circumstances under which it could possibly be okay for police to arrest someone currently in a state of medical emergency, and then not obtain medical care for her for nine hours.
Kourtney Wilson is a black woman, and it seems extremely unlikely that race had nothing to do with this case, and that a middle-class white woman would have endured the same treatment. Wilson indicates the same belief herself about racial and class bias, and her roommate Tiffini Williams suggests, “They come to the hood, see a girl on the floor, and they think she’s on drugs.” The idea sounds extremely plausible, and while it’s appalling that anyone would endure such treatment if their medical condition was the result of drug use, I don’t doubt that it’s a common occurrence.
It’s also important to note that abuse against people with disabilities within the medical system is hardly rare. Sadly, the idea that people in need of regular medical care are not deserving of good and respectful medical care is pervasive one. Indeed, according to Tiffini Williams, it was when she suggested that her friend deserved better than what she was receiving and had a right to non-abusive treatment that the paramedics decided to call the cops. How dare someone advocate on behalf of a black disabled woman from a low-income neighborhood? How dare anyone suggest that such a woman deserves better?
Unsurprisingly, as a result of this atrocious event, Kourtney Wilson is unsure about how she is going to receive emergency medical attention in the future. She says, “I can essentially die the next time I have a seizure, or be in jail again. That’s a very scary thing to think about.”