A doctor and nurse who allegedly turned away a woman while she was actively in labor at an Indiana hospital are no longer employed.
Hospital officials at Franciscan Health Crown Point announced the individuals’ termination, saying both failed Mercedes Wells’ care while she was due to give birth to her daughter.
“The physician and the nurse directly involved with Mrs. Wells’ care are no longer employed by Franciscan,” Franciscan Health Crown Point President and CEO Raymond Grady told PEOPLE in a statement on Friday (Nov. 21).
On Nov. 16, Wells and her husband, Leon, arrived at the hospital after calling to inform staff the day prior that she was due to give birth. Wells says when the couple arrived at the hospital, the staff told them to go home and wait for her labor to progress.
Video from a cell phone showed Wells heavily breathing in a wheelchair inside the hospital before security escorted her out. The video quickly went viral on social media, adding to the complicated and heartbreaking stigma of hospitals not listening to Black women who are pregnant.
Wells told CBS News Chicago that she was “met with really stern faces” when she arrived at the hospital. “No welcoming faces as I usually would get when I go to a hospital, or a place of care,” she added.
Despite being in “excruciating pain” and “agony,” the nurse in admissions told Wells she was not far enough along during labor to be admitted to the hospital.
Wells, now a mother of four, gave birth to her baby girl eight minutes later in her husband’s car on the side of the road. She would receive care shortly after giving birth at Community Hospital in Munster, IN.
After being turned away from Franciscan, the Wells family retained a lawyer, alleging that they were mistreated because they are Black.
“The video was difficult to watch,” Grady said in his statement, adding that the incident and the actions of the now former employees “does not reflect the values of Franciscan Health Crown Point, which include respect for life and compassionate concern.”
“Compassionate concern is absent when a caregiver fails to listen to a patient who is clearly in pain and vulnerable,” Grady said. “We failed to listen to Mrs. Wells’ concerns. 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.”
In the fallout from the inaction of the now-fired doctor and nurse regarding Mercedes Wells, Grady has “mandated cultural competency training for all labor and delivery staff,” and mandated that “all pregnant patients leaving the Labor and Delivery unit will be examined by a physician before they leave the hospital.”
“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,” Grady said. “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.”
