Having a stroke while black

Quote:

Al Copeland was driving on Mass. Ave in Boston one night when he started to feel nauseous and realized he needed to pull over right away. He didn't know it in that moment, but the then-62-year-old was having a stroke. "I was afraid," he recalls now. "I say, well, at least if anything happens to me, somebody will find me." Boston police did find Copeland slumped in his car and barely conscious in front of the Berklee College of Music. But instead of calling an ambulance, they arrested him. They wrote in their report that they smelled alcohol, even though Al says he hasn’t had a drink since 1995.

Boston police delayed his medical care for over 5 hours while he went untreated in their jail, undoubtedly making the injury suffered from the stroke much more severe.

The city has paid out 1.3 million to compensate the man for BPD's callousness.

Of course, local hospitals took the police's word at face value, delaying appropriate medical care for another 7 hrs:

Quote:

It didn’t get better when Al got to Tufts Medical Center. Police records show that medical providers there also assumed Al was drunk and left him in the emergency room for seven more hours. It was only when Valerie finally tracked down her husband that doctors confirmed he had no drugs or alcohol in his system. He wasn’t drunk. He’d had a stroke. But by then, the damage was done. Al had to remain in the hospital for weeks and then move to rehab. He had to give up his job with the MBTA. And he is still having trouble walking or even enjoying a meal.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2YJkOUG