Two back woman’s allegations against Valley Hospital

Aaron Arrington, a 40-year-old hat designer, and Doris Patton, a friend who drove Arrington to Valley the evening of Nov. 30 for treatment of gastrointestinal problems, said they saw what played out between Valley staffers and Roshunda Abney, who previously had waited for care at University Medical Center for six hours before giving up and heading to Valley with her fiance, Raffinee Dewberry.

“The woman was doubled over in pain holding onto the front desk,” Arrington said Wednesday as he stood near the women’s hats he makes in his home. “She was literally screaming and moaning about her stomach pain and looked like she was ready to hit the floor at any time. The man with her kept pleading, ‘Please help us, please help us.’ And the man at the counter ignored the woman’s pain and just said, ‘You have to fill out some paperwork.”’

Patton, who said she sat next to Arrington in the waiting room for nearly five hours to give him comfort, said she could not believe that a security guard told the couple they would have to wait their turn in spite of Abney’s condition.

“When the guy behind the counter said paperwork had to be filled out, the man said, ‘Can’t you see her and I’ll do that?’ He was told ‘no.’ It was very cold and rude.”

The accounts of Arrington and Patton about what happened just before midnight on Nov. 30 at Valley, a for-profit hospital, mirror the account of Abney and Dewberry, whose story was first told by the Review-Journal last month.

And they come a day after a report filed by state investigators said that UMC emergency room workers neglected to provide care to Abney, who did not know she was in labor.

Marla McDade Williams, head of the division within the Nevada State Health Division that carried out the investigation, said Wednesday that investigators would like to talk as soon as possible with witnesses who say they saw what happened at Valley.

Ken Webster, an attorney for Valley, said in an e-mail that Valley cannot comment on reported witness statements.

“Our investigation into this matter revealed that at no time were Ms. Abney or Mr. Dewberry treated rudely or in a disrespectful manner, nor were they ever denied an examination or assessment by Valley Hospital staff,” the e-mail said.

Other patients at UMC have supported the couple’s story of what happened at the public hospital, where Abney said she was ignored as she moaned and pleaded for help at UMC’s emergency room.

After Abney and Dewberry said they were unsuccessful in getting treatment at both hospitals, they left for home and bought over-the-counter pain medication for Abney. Within 20 minutes of arriving home on Dec. 1, she gave birth to a girl.

The baby, Angel Dewberry, died.

Neither Arrington nor Patton said they know either Abney or Dewberry. Arrington has paperwork that shows he did not leave the Valley emergency room until almost 4 a.m. on Dec. 1.

Through media accounts, they said, they came to realize that the couple they saw at Valley had reported the problems at UMC. Arrington said that when he saw on TV a longtime friend, Bishop Tyrone Seale, officiating at the baby’s funeral, he contacted the clergyman.

“He got me in touch with their attorney (Jacob Hafter),” Arrington said.

At Valley, Arrington said, the man trying to help the woman became more and more frantic.

“He said they had been waiting six to 10 hours,” he said. “He was crying. And the man behind the desk said, “If you’ve been waiting for hours at UMC, what makes you think you’ll come to the front of this line?'”

Patton remembers what Arrington said loud enough for everyone to hear: ‘When a lady is in that much pain, she can sure go in front of me.’

“But it obviously didn’t do any good,” Patton said.

Valley and UMC face a federal lawsuit filed by Hafter, which alleges that personnel at both hospitals violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act and failed to properly screen Abney.

Six UMC hospital workers have been suspended because of the incident. UMC spokesman Rick Plummer said Wednesday that because they are union employees, it could be months before their cases are finalized.

The investigation carried out by the Nevada State Health Division largely supports media accounts of what happened to Abney. It also disclosed that before the couple left UMC, lab tests revealed that Abney was pregnant.

“There was no documented evidence that Patient 37 (Abney) or the physician was notified of the results of … the positive pregnancy test,” the report said.

The report also said that there wasn’t sufficient communication between the Quick Care where Abney was first seen and UMC’s emergency room. Quick Care records show the doctor there thought Abney might be pregnant and needed further tests, but that fact wasn’t passed on to the emergency room.

“She would have gone all the way through in ER if (Quick Care) documents (were seen),” the emergency room medical director told state investigators. “They forgot customer service.”

Dewberry was polite, according to a security guard interviewed by state investigators. The guard said that hospital workers were rude to the couple.

The state, which also conducted the investigation on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, could remove UMC’s license to do business.

“They will get a chance to take corrective action and to appeal some things that we found,” said Williams, chief of the Bureau of Healthcare Quality and Compliance. “It is more likely that they will be fined $1,000 and take corrective action.”

UMC’s Plummer said violations of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act can mean the federal government could stop reimbursements to the hospital for Medicare and Medicaid patients.

“We’re confident that won’t happen,” he said. “We are seeing that the situation is corrected.”

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.