A Florida mother-of-three has died after paramedics allegedly refused to rush her to the hospital because they believed she couldn’t afford the ambulance ride.
Instead 30-year-old Crystle Galloway – who gave birth to a son just days prior to her medical emergency – was driven to the hospital by her frantic mother Nicole Black.
Galloway, from Tampa, arrived to the hospital on July 4 where doctors found bleeding in her brain and she fell into a coma and died five days later.
She passed away on July 9, three days before her 31st birthday.
Now Black is claiming that the paramedics’ neglect cost her daughter’s life.
Crystle Galloway, 30, suffered a stroke-like medical emergency on July 4 but the paramedics that arrived to her door failed to rush her to the hospital
Doting mom: The mother-of-three had given birth to a baby boy just days prior to her incident
Her mother Nicole Black drove Galloway, above, to the hospital. She blames her child’s death on the neglect of the paramedics who failed to take her vitals and rush her to the hospital
She exhibited symptoms of a stroke after undergoing a Cesarean section days earlier, and yet was not rushed to the hospital via ambulance, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
‘They never asked us if we had insurance, which we do,’ Black said to WPBF, adding that she felt stereotyped by the fire-rescue medics that responded to the emergency call.
‘The whole conversation as the EMS drivers put my child in my car was that was best for us because we couldn’t afford an ambulance. My daughter begged for her life, she begged,’ Black added.
‘She was 30 years old, she just graduated from college, she had her whole life ahead of her,’ her mother said.
The day of the incident Galloway called her mother saying something was wrong, and she promptly called police.
Black called 911 saying she found her daughter with swollen lips and drooling from the mouth.
Galloway’s mother Black said: ‘I really feel like the officers and the EMS fire rescue department failed to help me. Because of them and their negligence, my daughter died’
Never forgotten: Black shared these commemorative images of Galloway who died three days before her 31st birthday
A GoFundMe page has been started to help support Galloway’s three children, pictured above
‘They didn’t take any vitals, they didn’t take her blood pressure, they didn’t take her temperature,’ Black said on the paramedics that arrived to her doorstep.
Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill admitted that that was the first grave mistake the four fire-rescue medics on site made.
The medics then allowed Black to drive her daughter to Brandon Regional Hospital without signing a consent form, which she says was the medics’ idea.
Galloway’s condition was so dire, she was flown by helicopter afterwards across town to Tampa General Hospital where she passed away.
However, paramedics argue that Black volunteered to drive her daughter to the hospital if they helped bring Galloway down the three flights of stairs of her apartment.
Those four paramedics were Lt. John ‘Mike’ Morris, 36; Fire Medic Justin Sweeney, 36; Fire Medic Andrew J. Martin, 28; and acting Lt. Cortney Barton, 38.
Black, left, said she drove her daughter, right, to the hospital because paramedics said ‘that was best for us because we couldn’t afford an ambulance’
At the hospital Galloway, above with daughter, was found with bleeding in her brain and fell into a coma. She was flown to another hospital where she died days later
The four paramedics who responded to Galloway have been suspended and a disciplinary hearing is scheduled, as announced by the Hillsborough County administrator
They had all worked for the the Fire Rescue medical department for five to nine years and have since been suspended after the county’s Human Resources Department learned of the incident on July 11.
An investigation found they failed to take Galloway’s vitals and incorrectly handled paperwork – where they wrote the patient hadn’t been found, even though she had, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
‘I deeply regret that this has happened and clearly this is unacceptable,’ Administrator Merill said on the incident.
‘You can tell me you’re sorry, you can give me your condolences, but you still have to work this out with God,’ Black said.
Black has started a GoFundMe page to help provide for the three children her daughter has left behind.
‘I really feel like the officers and the EMS fire rescue department failed to help me. Because of them and their negligence, my daughter died,’ Black, who also goes by Nicole Benhamou, wrote.
‘I cannot trust these individuals to work under my medical license. I feel they do not meet the minimum standards set by myself and the department,’ Michael Lozano, Fire Rescue medical director, said in a statement.
A disciplinary hearing is tentatively scheduled for July 31.