A doctor and a nurse have been dismissed from their positions at a hospital after a woman was compelled to give birth in a car by the roadside, just minutes following her departure from the facility where she was denied admission despite being in labor.
Mercedes Wells, accompanied by her husband Leon, visited the Franciscan Health Crown Point hospital in Indiana on November 16. Despite having called ahead to notify the hospital, upon arrival, the staff was unaware of her details or her attending physician, which marked the beginning of a substandard experience.
Following an extended and painful wait with contractions only 15 minutes apart, a nurse assessed that she was merely 3cm dilated. The nurse, citing ‘doctor’s orders’, instructed Wells to return home without her having seen a physician.
“Well, if you’re not further along in your centimeters, then you know we’ve got to send you home,'” the nurse reportedly told Wells during an interview with NBC.
Eight minutes later, as they were on the road, Leon was in a position to deliver their child himself. He recounted, “I actually see the baby’s head. I see the baby’s head right there. I’m like, Oh, my gosh. I pull over.”
With no prior experience in childbirth, Leon did his utmost. “I saw her pushing … pulled a little bit, baby came out and just didn’t know what to do. I just prayed.”
Fortunately, Wells’ fourth child, a baby girl, was born safely and is in good health, despite the traumatic delivery far from the safety of the hospital environment.
The incident garnered national attention due to a distressing video of the episode that circulated on social media. The footage depicts Wells in visible pain and struggling for breath as she is wheeled out of the hospital.
Franciscan Health Crown Point’s CEO, Raymond Grady, responded to the termination of two healthcare workers by acknowledging the video as ‘difficult to watch’. In his statement, he asserted: “We failed to listen to Mrs. Wells’ concerns.”
Grady further stated: “As an experienced mother who publicly acknowledged having previously given birth at our hospital with a positive experience, she knew something was not right. We must fix what failed in our hospital so that no one experiences what happened to Mercedes Wells.”
This event has highlighted concerns regarding the inequitable treatment of black women in maternity care, which Wells described as ‘really a horrific’. She felt it was akin to being ‘treated like a dog, or not even like a dog, like less than.’
In an interview with NBC, Wells expressed: “It says that they don’t care at all for Black women in health, and it’s hurtful. We thought that, you know, things have changed at this point in our country, and I don’t see a change.”
Leon shared his distress and apprehension about the risks involved with a roadside delivery, noting it was ‘very hard’ to witness his wife endure the challenging situation.