Woman in Maryland Discharged From Hospital Wearing Only Gown and Socks on Frigid Night

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

A man in Maryland witnessed a bizarre and distressing scene Tuesday night, when he saw hospital personnel leave a woman wearing only a hospital gown and socks at a bus stop. 

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The University of Maryland Medical System is investigating an incident at its midtown campus in Baltimore in which a woman is seen on video outside the hospital wearing just a gown.

The video shows what looks like four security guards, one with a wheelchair, walking away from a bus stop outside the hospital on the outskirts of Mount Vernon. A woman is seen near the bus stop dressed in a gown and socks. Her belongings are packed in plastic bags that have also been placed at the bus stop.

The man started taking video of the scene and tried to get help for the woman.

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Imamu Baraka, identified in local reports as the person who sought to help the woman, told The Associated Press he was so angry he decided to record Tuesday night’s events on cellphone video, fearing no one would believe him if he reported a woman being left at a bus stop like that.

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He described frigid temperatures in the 30s and a cold wind blowing at the woman’s hospital gown, exposing her to the elements.

There's more in the two articles I linked. Mr. Baraka tried confronting the hospital personnel who wheeled the woman to the bus stop in a wheelchair and left her. Then he called police and an ambulance came to take her right back to the same hospital that she had just been "discharged" from!!!

I don't know if the full story of how this fuck up happened will ever be made public, but this is absolutely horrifying! What the everloving hell!!!

[chaotic life]

No excuse!!! Even if she were indigent, were a psych case, was violent inside!

You have scrubs in the OR area always. You have blankets galore. You have a lost and found of items. You have techs and aides who could sit WITH her. You have resources to call a cab, find a family member, contact local shelters, call the police. You have 24/7 social workers and case managers. And if the only option you have is to dump her naked on the bus stop bench, then you damn well hold her for observation and get discharge planners to secure a better discharge than that when the sun comes up!

[Chewing Gum]

That poor woman. She was obviously I’m a lot of distress. I saw Sicko by Michael Moore a few years back, so I’m not surprised. 

[HearMeRoar]

As a healthcare worker, this makes me so unbelievably angry! How can you treat another human being that way? Especially when it is your job to help people. I'm so done with the majority of the human race. 

[HarryPotterFan]

The woman’s mother found out about the incident when she saw the video. The woman has multiple mental illnesses, and has been living in a residential youth program. The mom has been fighting for legal guardianship. Security acted like a bunch of dicks when she asked about the whereabouts of her child.

Also the hospital said they’re investigating what happened.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/university-of-maryland-medical-center-patient-dumping-mother-speaks-out-viral-video/

[RosyDaisy]

WTF??? Get the woman some scrubs at least. My husband said this would not happen at our local hospital, and he certainly wouldn't leave a patient in that condition. Hell, he would give her a ride home.

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

The details in the article you linked to are so sad, @HarryPotterFan. I hope the young woman's mom gets medical guardianship so that she can ensure her daughter gets help. (Assuming, of course, that the mom is genuine.) 

This quote from that article stuck out to me:

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"We feel comfortable in the statement that what you saw in that video is not a process that would occur with any frequency at all," said Dr. Mohan Suntha, president and CEO of the University of Maryland Medical Center.

(my bold)

I'm inclined to say that treating a person this way once is too many times. 

[Flossie]

I had a friend suffer an aneurysm a few years ago.  She was treated well at first, flown to a good hospital and given a lifesaving surgery that was supposed to fix the problem once and for all, then she then spent a week to 10 days (I think) in hospital.  But by the time she was discharged the hospital had become aware that she was uninsured and living below the poverty line.  When she developed severe pain the day after discharge her family feared another aneurysm or a problem with the first one, so they called an ambulance.  

The ambulance took her back to the hospital she'd just been discharged from and they refused to let the ambulance unload her.  They said they'd lost enough money on her and told the ambulance to take her to a different hospital.  That second hospital tried to keep her out, but by then her family had showed up at the ER and was making such a scene that she was admitted.  

Luckily, it turned out that the pain was caused by an error in her medication instructions, she was only taking half as much pain meds as required.  But she could burst into tears years after that when remembering how she thought she might be dying and not one, but two hospitals tried to deny her service.  I never understood how they could get away with it, but all of her family all agreed that it happened.

[Rachel333]

Psych patients are often treated terribly, sadly. 

Edit: Sort of in the hospital's defense, if she refused to get re-dressed and wasn't considered incapacitated enough to be forced to stay, I'm not sure what the hospital could do. There's definitely more to the story given that there were two security guards walking out with her. It definitely doesn't look good for the hospital, though.

Edit again: It does seem like even if she chose to go outside in freezing temperatures wearing nothing but a hospital gown then that could be considered endangering her own life, but I don't know if that's enough to force someone to stay.