A hospital has fired a doctor and a nurse after a woman gave birth in a vehicle by the side of the road, just eight minutes after she was forced to leave the premises despite being in labor.
Mercedes Wells attended the Franciscan Health Crown Point hospital in Indiana with husband Leon, November 16, but from the start her experience was sub par. Despite being at the hospital for six hours, she never saw a doctor.
After a lengthy painful wait, and with her contractions just 15 minutes apart, a nurse determined that she was only 3cm dilated and told the mother-of-three to go home on ‘doctor’s orders’, without Wells ever seeing a doctor.
“Well, if you’re not further along in your centimeters, then you know we’ve got to send you home,'” the nurse was alleged to have said by Wells in an interview with NBC.
But after just eight minutes on the road, husband Leon found himself delivering his own child. He said: “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 experience in delivering a baby, Leon did his best. “I saw her pushing … pulled a little bit, baby came out and just didn’t know what to do.
“I just prayed.”
Thankfully, Wells’ fourth child, a baby girl, was delivered safely and is doing well, after what was described as an ‘awful’ delivery, far from the safety and reassurance of the hospital’s care.
The mother of four’s plight came to national attention this week after a harrowing video of her experience spread on social media, showing Wells in clear pain and pushing for breath as she’s wheeled out of the hospital.
Franciscan Health Crown Point’s CEO Raymond Grady, responding to the sacking of two health workers, described the video as ‘difficult to watch’. He said in a statement: “We failed to listen to Mrs. Wells’ concerns.”
Grady’s statement continued: “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.
“The physician and the nurse directly involved with Mrs. Wells’ care are no longer employed by Franciscan.”
Her experience has raised concerns about the disparity in the treatment of black women in maternity care, which Wells described as ‘really horrific’. She said it was like being ‘treated like a dog, or not even like a dog, like less than.’
Wells later told NBC: “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 described his fear and anxiety at the dangers of being forced into a roadside delivery, adding that it was ‘very hard’ to see wife Mercedes suffer through the ordeal.