CROWN POINT, Ind. (WLS) — The doctor and nurse who attended to a Chicago mother who was discharged from a northwest Indiana hospital shortly before giving birth earlier this week are no longer with that hospital, the Franciscan Health Crown Point president and CEO said Friday.
Mercedes Wells said she knew something was wrong when she went to the hospital to give birth and they did not put her in a labor and delivery room.
Instead, 38-year-old Wells says, she spent six hours there until her contractions were just one minute apart. The nurse told her to go home, she said. Eight minutes after being forced to leave, she gave birth in her car.
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Franciscan Health Crown Point President and CEO Raymond Grady said Friday that in addition to the hospital employees being terminated, a cultural competency training has been mandated for all labor and delivery staff.
And all pregnant patients leaving the labor and delivery unit will be examined by a physician before they leave the hospital, he said.
“On behalf of Franciscan Alliance and Franciscan Health Crown Point, I apologize to Mrs. Wells and her family for failing to live up to our Franciscan values. We are committed to holding ourselves accountable through our actions so that every patient is heard and receives compassionate, equitable care. Any evidence of actions to the contrary will not be tolerated,” the statement said. “We’ve reached out to the family and it is my hope to meet in person with them very soon.”
Baby Alena Wells is doing well, her mother said.
But Wells said earlier this week she is still deeply disturbed that she had to give birth on the side of the road early Sunday morning after being forced to leave Franciscan Health in Crown Point, Indiana
Wells is an experienced mother who just gave birth to her fourth child. She says she was in a lot of pain and knew the baby was coming soon. But, she says, the nurse told her to leave.
“I was in excruciating pain. She seen me in pain and agony, and I guess she still perceived me to not be in labor,” Wells said. “Upon returning to the room she’s like ‘Well, if you aren’t further along in your centimeters then, you know, we gotta send you home.””
Wells’ mother shared video she took as her daughter was being wheeled out of the hospital, accompanied by security.
Wells, who lives in Chicago, says she was visiting Indiana two weeks before her due date when she felt like it was time. They chose the closest hospital. But when they made her leave, her husband, Leon, was driving them to the next closest hospital in Munster when the baby started to emerge.
“In God’s grace, I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t have a medical license or anything to have a baby,” he said.
Fortunately, things worked out, and baby Alena arrived safely. But the couple and their attorney, Cannon Lambert, say this is not the way it was supposed to happen.
“We can agree a woman is active labor should not be sent away without seeing a doctor,” Lambert said.
During a news conference with their lawyer, the family said they were mistreated because of their race.
“I was stripped of my dignity. As a person, I was treated less than an animal,” Wells said.
Mercedes and Leon Wells say, at this point, they have not considered legal action.
The video in the player above is from an earlier report.
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