brother of man who died after er visit wonders if race was issue
akeem scott died on june 21, 2019 of acute peritonitis, a life-threatening but treatable condition, hours after leaving the jewish general hospital’s emergency department.
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by: michelle lalonde
family members and friends of akeem scott say they suspect racial profiling played a role in the young black man’s death.
scott, 26, died on june 21, 2019 of acute peritonitis, a life-threatening but treatable condition, hours after leaving the jewish general hospital’s emergency department in exhausted frustration. he had arrived by ambulance in excruciating pain, but was not seen by a doctor in the four hours that he waited in the er, at times writhing on the floor from the pain.
“it was so awful, and i don’t want it to happen to anyone else,” scott’s brother, zion green, told the montreal gazette tuesday. “it’s very hurtful. i just wonder if they neglected him because he was a young black man.”
green called an ambulance that day to bring his brother to the hospital from his mother’s home in côte-des-neiges, because the stomach pain scott had been experiencing for days had become insupportable.
once at the hospital, green contacted his brother’s best friend, malick sangaré, who immediately joined them at the er to offer support. the two say they tried for four hours to get medical attention for scott, or at least a bed for him to stretch out on.
at two points, green said, scott lay down on the floor in a fetal position, moaning in pain. sangaré claims security guards told them they had to get him up or they would be asked to leave. scott was eventually moved to another waiting area, but still not offered a bed, sangaré said.
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about four hours after his arrival at the er, with no bed, pain relief or doctor’s attention seeming imminent, scott asked to go to sangaré’s apartment, which was nearby. he wanted to lie down and get some rest, planning to return to the hospital the next day, sangaré explained.
early the next morning, sangaré found his friend’s condition had worsened; he was vomiting blood. sangaré called another ambulance, but by the time paramedics arrived scott had gone into heart failure and they were unable to revive him. sangaré believes his friend essentially died in his arms.
“i put him down to call 911 and then came back to take him in my arms. … he was holding on to me and then i felt his body get rock heavy,” sangaré said emotionally.
scott was officially pronounced dead by an urgences-santé doctor at 7:05 a.m., about 12 hours after he left the er.
the coroner’s report concluded scott died of acute peritonitis. the condition is an inflammation of the peritoneal lining — a membrane that lines the inner abdominal wall — usually caused by bacterial infection.
the coroner noted scott had been classified as priority 3 by the triage nurse, which means he should have been seen within 30 minutes of arriving at the hospital.
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sangaré feels his friend’s distress was underestimated, or mistaken as drug or alcohol induced, because of his physical appearance.
“i felt like we were just not taken seriously because of how we looked,” said sangaré. “we kind of looked like … stereotypically speaking, like street hoodlums or whatever. that’s how we were dressed.
“put it this way: someone the same age, or whatever age, but white, who was there with a friend or family member who was really pressing to get a bed, just a bed … so he could lay down and feel more comfortable so we wouldn’t have had to leave, i’m guaranteeing a white individual would have gotten that bed no problem within that time … and probably right away.”
sangaré said he has known scott and his family since he was six years old. the two worked construction and gardening jobs together every spring and summer. scott’s death is still difficult for him to accept, he said.
“he was my right arm. we were that close. he was like my brother,” he said, describing scott as very devoted to his mother and extended family.
the coroner recommended that the jewish general hospital, which is part of the ciusss west-central montreal, review its treatment of scott that day.
asked whether the hospital plans to review the case, a spokesperson for the ciusss west-central montreal said there would be no comment, citing confidentiality rules.
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fo niemi, executive director of the center for research-action on race relations, a montreal-based non-profit civil rights organization, is helping the family seek some kind of redress.
given other recent cases that raise questions about racial discrimination in the health system, “the question is worth asking” in this case, niemi said. “one of the options we will be looking at is a request to the college of physicians and the order of nurses to review the evidence and circumstances of treatment.”
green said his family is exploring legal options.
“i would like to get justice,” he said. “i wouldn’t want this to happen to anybody. the staff (at the hospital) need to do better. whether it had anything to do with race or not, they have to do better.”
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