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Police Officer stops man from entering ER while wife is having stroke Aisha Send a noteboard - 20/06/2010 10:08:49 PM
Stories like these make me wonder how it is even possible for a man with such bad judgment to become a cop? If a cop follows someone running two red light near a hospital to the ER and sees him carrying a woman in his arms, wouldnt the smart thing be to follow him in and see what going on? The man actually explained that his wife was having a stroke (with strokes every second counts) and with that explanation the officer should have moved out of the way within a millisecond. And then to arrest the guy even after it was medically established his wife did indeed have a stroke when he broke the law of running from a cop and through a few red lights. I know cops and firemen have this whole, stand by each other things, but the police department either needs to produce evidence that the man and hospital are lying or apologize for the cop and teach the man a thing or two about emergency situations. The link shows the woman a few minutes after she was admitted with her face quite visibly drooping form the stroke.

HATTANOOGA (WRCB) – A patient, believed to be having a stroke, says an officer with the Chattanooga Police Department blocked her husband from taking her to the emergency room at Erlanger Wednesday night.

Aline Wright is a cancer survivor, amputee and a newlywed. Wednesday night she began to show signs she was having a stroke.

"I started feeling some left arm numbness and a facial droop," said Aline.

"It appeared to me that I was probably having a stroke."

That's when her husband of four days, Jesse Wright, put her in the car and rushed her to the Erlanger Medical Center. Wright knows an emergency. He is a nurse technician at Erlanger.

On the way to the hospital, Aline says Jesse treated two red lights like stop signs. He would stop and then proceed if no traffic was coming. After Jesse ran the second stop light one block from Erlanger, the officer turned on the cruiser's blue lights and followed the couple into the emergency room parking lot.

"At that point we figured because we were so close to Erlanger emergency department that the police would be aware that's where we were going," said Aline.

According to Aline, the officer caught up with the couple as they were attempting to enter the emergency room at Erlanger Medical Center. Aline says her husband was carrying her in his arms because she could not walk. According to Aline, the officer blocked the entrance and demanded answers for running the red lights.

"He picks me up in his arms and the officer continues to block the way into the emergency room," said Aline.

"He's standing between Jesse and I, and the emergency room doors."

Aline says eventually the officer allowed them to enter the hospital, but says he didn't stop there.

Aline tells Channel 3 Eyewitness News that once the couple was placed in a hospital room, the officer attempted to enter their room to arrest Jesse for evading the police.

Erlanger medical personnel then turned the officer away, informing him that since Aline could not speak Jesse was needed to answer questions for the doctors.

Thursday morning Erlanger security informed the couple that a warrant for Jesse's arrest had been issued, and suggested he turn himself in. Aline says Jesse went to the Hamilton County Jail to turn himself in that evening. According to Aline, jail employees told Jesse that they had no record of a warrant for him and told him he was free to go.

Jesse returned to his ailing wife's bedside at Erlanger Medical Center.

"I thought it was over," said Aline.

"But apparently it wasn't. I was awakened abruptly by people coming in the room."

On Friday morning the police were back at the hospital. This time Jesse surrendered to Erlanger Security who arrested him on behalf of the Chattanooga Police Department.

Channel 3 had the only crew there as Jesse was released on $7,500 bond, about eight hours after being arrested. He is facing seven charges related to Wednesday night's events, including felony evading arrest. He's due in court on July 9th.

Eyewitness News contacted Chattanooga Police today for their side of the story.

Lt. Kim Noorbergen said, "Unless we receive an Internal Affairs complaint on an officer we trust he is doing his job."

The department will not comment further until a formal complaint is filed with the Internal Affairs Department.

Aline Wright says she plans to file a complaint. The couple has already hired an attorney for a possible lawsuit.

An Erlanger spokesperson tells us by law their security guards are obligated to carry out any arrest warrant related to felony charges. The Erlanger spokesperson says once they learned the warrant for Wright's arrest was issued, and they learned he was in the building, they had to arrest him.

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Aisha - formerly known as randschicka
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Police Officer stops man from entering ER while wife is having stroke - 20/06/2010 10:08:49 PM 1337 Views
So? - 20/06/2010 11:53:33 PM 690 Views
Seriously? - 21/06/2010 12:11:17 AM 756 Views
Carrying a woman into the ER doesn't really scream "made up excuse" - 21/06/2010 12:24:30 AM 1165 Views
Time and place. - 21/06/2010 02:25:27 AM 766 Views
Plus he was carrying a woman - 21/06/2010 11:40:18 AM 812 Views
Oh please. *NM* - 21/06/2010 03:34:16 AM 324 Views
i cant even take this seriously. - 21/06/2010 04:28:12 AM 861 Views
he clearly wasn't just "making up an excuse" though. - 21/06/2010 10:59:13 AM 900 Views
unfortunately the law is on the officer's side, no matter whether he acted correctly - 21/06/2010 07:09:13 AM 693 Views
well this is,really, a drastically different situation - 21/06/2010 08:11:39 AM 754 Views
the point is, the officer is not required to show compassion, only enforce the law - 21/06/2010 11:53:51 PM 609 Views
no. a officer is NOT only required to hold up the law. - 22/06/2010 12:28:05 AM 619 Views
i'm not disagreeing with you - 22/06/2010 01:25:43 AM 732 Views
except in this case (you seem to be ignoring this) - 22/06/2010 01:35:21 AM 674 Views
At the very least the officer should have let medical personnel take the woman in for treatment - 21/06/2010 02:56:30 PM 698 Views
But... - 21/06/2010 04:58:06 PM 764 Views
"The fact is that the man broke the law" is nonsense. That's what judgment is for. - 21/06/2010 05:30:26 PM 726 Views
But you can get pulled over for going 1 mile over. - 21/06/2010 05:59:51 PM 761 Views
the thing is... - 22/06/2010 12:29:43 AM 608 Views
But then he's have to use a cell phone while driving! Another crime! *NM* - 22/06/2010 02:41:51 AM 343 Views
Not in TN *NM* - 22/06/2010 02:02:32 PM 284 Views
This is ridiculous - 22/06/2010 03:18:03 AM 739 Views
How exactly did I justify anything? Perhaps you missed the subject of my post. - 22/06/2010 02:28:21 PM 671 Views
I'm saying the fact that the law was broken is totally irrelevent, - 23/06/2010 02:15:56 AM 774 Views
How can it be even slightly irrelevant, let alone "totally" so? - 25/06/2010 03:24:19 PM 643 Views
It is sad when idiocy and a lack of judgment becomes codified into law backed with enforcement power - 21/06/2010 09:56:32 PM 1085 Views
i don't even know if I'd be happy with a lawsuit - 22/06/2010 12:31:18 AM 656 Views
The cop should be fired and fined - 23/06/2010 03:40:32 PM 633 Views
You are such a bleeding heart liberal.. - 25/06/2010 03:22:42 AM 640 Views
LOL - - 25/06/2010 03:11:47 PM 638 Views

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