A Missouri man died in a hospital parking lot after his third attempt to get emergency medical treatment, his wife says.
Suggested Reading
According to St. Louis-area CBS affiliate News 4, Sadie Bell took her husband, David, to the emergency room at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Peters the week of Jan. 8 after he complained of chest pains. Both times, Sadie said, medical staff refused to admit him and gave him Ibuprofen instead.
David, who was a director of Central County Fire, was rushed back for a third time to the very hospital he was denied treatment. His wife recounted what happened next.
“I called his fireman, because one of his firemen took him. I said, ‘Which hospital did you take him to?’ he said, ‘I went on and took him back to Barnes-Jewish because I know that’s where you all had been going.’ I said, ‘Oh, I just wish you wouldn’t have took him there.’ He said, ‘Why not?’ and I said, ‘Every time that we have taken him, all they did was give him Ibuprofen and sent him home, and I’m really thinking they missing something,’” Bell recalled.
Here is more on the tragic story, per News 4:
When Bell got to the hospital she said her husband was sitting outside in a wheelchair. After begging doctors to run tests and admit him, she said they refused.
“He said, ‘ma’am he’s already been here twice for the same thing and we’ve already diagnosed him,’” Bell said. From there she said she was preparing to take him to another hospital but it was too late.
“We got halfway to the car and he said, ‘Oh Sadie.’ And I said, ‘Baby what’s wrong?’” she said. Bell said her husband took his last breath in the parking lot and a good Samaritan tried giving David CPR.
Bell believes her husband received a lack of treatment because doctors and staff dismissed him. National medical reports state African Americans often have higher mortality rates because they don’t receive the same health care as their white counterparts.
“I don’t know what they thought and I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t help him,” she said.
Numbers from the American Medical Association (AMA) show Black Americans’ mortality rate is 24% higher than white Americans. One of the main contributing factors the AMA points out is that doctors are not addressing pain levels from black patients.
Citing privacy laws, Barnes-Jewish declined to comment to local media.
“When people ask you for help and they need help, I shouldn’t have to come 1, 2, 3 times. I shouldn’t have to be sitting here grieving my husband. I shouldn’t have...My children shouldn’t not have a father,” Sadie said.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.