According to reports, 25-year-old Tashonna Ward (above) arrived at Froedtert Hospital‘s emergency room with her sister at 4:58 p.m. on January 2 for chest pain. After being forced to wait for hours to see a doctor, the woman left and went to seek help at an urgent care center — only to collapse near her car and later die.
Multiple tests were performed on the woman and an X-ray showed she had cardiomegaly, per a Milwaukee County medical examiner’s report. Ward’s family told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that following the tests, she was asked to stay in the waiting room until further care was available.
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Tashonna’s cousin Andrea Ward said to the paper:
“How can you triage someone with shortness of breath and chest pain and stick them in the lobby?”
Ward made no secret of her frustrations during the lengthy wait period. In a Facebook post that day, she complained about how crowded the emergency room was, adding in a second post how absurd it was that she had to wait for hours despite the fact that she was experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath.
She wrote at the time:
“I been here since 4:30 something for shortness of breath, and chest pains for them to just say it’s a two to SIX hour wait to see a dr. Like that is really f**king ridiculous”
Around 7:30 p.m., Ward reportedly left the emergency room because she “felt she was waiting too long and decided to go to an Urgent Care,” the report states. By that point, she had been in the ER for well over 2 hours.
When the hospital staff called her cellphone to check up on her roughly an hour after Ward left, they were told by her sister that she had collapsed near their car outside the urgent care facility. An ambulance rushed her back to Froedtert Hospital, where she was pronounced dead just before 11 p.m..
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The report states that Ward had previously been diagnosed with an enlarged heart. Her mother, Yolanda Ward, revealed the young woman learned about her health issue during her pregnancy: Ward was apparently due to give birth last March, but the baby was breech and died at a different hospital.
Ward’s mother requested an autopsy, results of which are pending, to determine the manner and cause of death.
Meanwhile, Froedtert Hospital extended condolences to Ward’s family in a statement to NBC News, saying:
“We respect their wishes and privacy during this difficult time. They continue to be in our thoughts and have our deepest sympathy.”
They have our deepest sympathy as well. So incredibly devastating.
[Image via Facebook]
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