An investigation is underway following the death of a 30-year-old Black Florida woman whose mother said she was left with no choice but to drive her daughter to the hospital during a medical emergency after ambulance medics assumed could not afford to take the ambulance.
According to WFTS, Nicole Black is claiming that she called 911 earlier this month when she found her daughter Crystle Galloway semi-unconscious in the bathroom after she had fallen and hit her head.
But Black was forced to drive her daughter to a nearby hospital after the four medics that arrived told her that she couldn’t afford to pay for an ambulance.
“Ms. Black said that the responders told her she could not afford the $600 ambulance ride to take her daughter to the hospital and that she was directed by the medics to drive her there on her own. Ms. Black said she believed her family was treated poorly because they are black,” TheNew York Times reports.
It turns out that Galloway was so sick that she had to be flown to the Tampa BayGeneral Hospital in a helicopter, The Tampa Bay Times reported.
She died in the hospital five days later.
“They never asked us if we had insurance, which we do,” Black said. “They didn’t take any vitals, they didn’t take any blood pressure, they didn’t check her temperature.”
According to a statement from Hillsborough Country following the tragic incident, the four medics have now been suspended for not following protocol and will face a disciplinary hearing in the near future.
