Flames. Flames on the side of my face...
Mar. 3rd, 2006 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockPandagon links to a story that is so utterly horrifying you may not believe what you're reading:
A federal discrimination lawsuit was filed Thursday by the surviving family members of a man who died of a heart attack after the police chief allegedly prevented his friend from performing CPR.
…According papers filed in court Thursday Snead had begun performing CPR by the side of the road when Bowman arrived and told Snead to stop because Green was HIV positive.
When Snead didn’t stop the CPR, Bowman grabbed Snead by the shoulders and physically barred Snead from continuing CPR at a critical point in Green’s resuscitation. Snead, who had not realized at first that Bowman was a police officer, obeyed his commands.
While Green fought to stay alive, Bowman prevented anyone else from aiding Green until EMS workers arrived approximately 10 minutes later.
While they were putting Green in the ambulance, Bowman informed EMS workers that Green was HIV positive. Although the EMS workers ignored Bowman’s warnings and performed CPR on Green, he passed away shortly after arriving at the hospital. He did not have HIV. The court papers said that Bowman based his assumption that Green was HIV+ because he knew Green was gay.
Yes, that's right, a police officer stopped good samaritans from attempting to do CPR on a heart attack victim because he was convinced the man had AIDS. And where did this diagnosis come from? Well from the fact that he apparently knew the victim was gay and, as we all know, all gay men have AIDS, right? You'd think someone in law enforcement would at least be fairly up to date on the medical realities of HIV, but you'd bewrong:
“Bowman’s actions were a frightening abuse of power,” said Rose Saxe, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s AIDS Project. “It’s hard to say what was more shameful: that Chief Bowman assumed Claude Green was HIV positive solely because he was gay, or that Bowman was so ignorant about HIV that he felt you couldn’t safely perform CPR on an HIV positive person.”
[...]
“We have brought this lawsuit to stop Police Chief Bowman from hurting more people,” said Green’s sister Anita Tickle, a practicing nurse. “I have spent my life helping sick people, including people with HIV, and I cannot understand how Bowman could possibly justify his actions. We’ve known for two decades that HIV is not easily transmitted and that it is safe to perform CPR on someone with the disease. That’s something a police chief ought to know too.”
This just makes me sick.
A federal discrimination lawsuit was filed Thursday by the surviving family members of a man who died of a heart attack after the police chief allegedly prevented his friend from performing CPR.
…According papers filed in court Thursday Snead had begun performing CPR by the side of the road when Bowman arrived and told Snead to stop because Green was HIV positive.
When Snead didn’t stop the CPR, Bowman grabbed Snead by the shoulders and physically barred Snead from continuing CPR at a critical point in Green’s resuscitation. Snead, who had not realized at first that Bowman was a police officer, obeyed his commands.
While Green fought to stay alive, Bowman prevented anyone else from aiding Green until EMS workers arrived approximately 10 minutes later.
While they were putting Green in the ambulance, Bowman informed EMS workers that Green was HIV positive. Although the EMS workers ignored Bowman’s warnings and performed CPR on Green, he passed away shortly after arriving at the hospital. He did not have HIV. The court papers said that Bowman based his assumption that Green was HIV+ because he knew Green was gay.
Yes, that's right, a police officer stopped good samaritans from attempting to do CPR on a heart attack victim because he was convinced the man had AIDS. And where did this diagnosis come from? Well from the fact that he apparently knew the victim was gay and, as we all know, all gay men have AIDS, right? You'd think someone in law enforcement would at least be fairly up to date on the medical realities of HIV, but you'd bewrong:
“Bowman’s actions were a frightening abuse of power,” said Rose Saxe, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s AIDS Project. “It’s hard to say what was more shameful: that Chief Bowman assumed Claude Green was HIV positive solely because he was gay, or that Bowman was so ignorant about HIV that he felt you couldn’t safely perform CPR on an HIV positive person.”
[...]
“We have brought this lawsuit to stop Police Chief Bowman from hurting more people,” said Green’s sister Anita Tickle, a practicing nurse. “I have spent my life helping sick people, including people with HIV, and I cannot understand how Bowman could possibly justify his actions. We’ve known for two decades that HIV is not easily transmitted and that it is safe to perform CPR on someone with the disease. That’s something a police chief ought to know too.”
This just makes me sick.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-03 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-03 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-03 06:47 pm (UTC)It's one of those stories that reinforces why a lot of people don't want to live in places liek West Virginia.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-03 09:41 pm (UTC)Innocent until proven guilty...
Date: 2006-03-03 10:08 pm (UTC)Notice that the article says "According to papers filed in court". That's the basis for this article. Papers filed by a grieving family against a cop who was there when their family member died.
Bowman denies the accusations. We don't know what assumptions he made about HIV status based on Green's sexual orientation. He may have just been referencing universal precautions that every EMS worker is trained in. We don't know if he intended to interrupt CPR, or if that's just how it seemed in the confusion.
Before we build ourselves an iconic Bigot Cop... well, let's not let *our* prejudices get the better of us.
All that said, if a whit of what the family claims is true, I'll heat the tar.
Re: Innocent until proven guilty...
Date: 2006-03-03 10:28 pm (UTC)