Mo. homeless woman died in jail hours after hospital arrest; is anyone to blame?

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Anna Brown was found dead in a Missouri jail cell hours after being arrested for trespassing at a hospital

/ CBS/iStockphoto

(CBS/AP) RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Mo. - Family members and activists are seeking answers in a homeless woman's death in a jail cell last September, after she was arrested for refusing to leave a St. Louis hospital where she had sought treatment for a sprained ankle.

An autopsy of Anna Brown revealed she had blood clots that migrated from her legs to her lungs, eventually killing her, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. There were no drugs found in her system.

Brown's family has hired a lawyer, and Brown's mother, Dorothy Davis, said she wants answers.

If the police killed my daughter, I want to know," she said. "If the hospital is at fault, I want to know. I want to be able to tell her children why their mother isn't here."

A week before Brown's death, she went to three hospitals complaining of leg pain. The 29-year-old, who had lost custody of her two children, refused to leave the third hospital, St. Mary's Health Center. On Sept. 21, 2011, she was arrested for trespassing and wheeled out in handcuffs after a doctor said she was healthy enough to be locked up, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Fifteen minutes after Brown was placed in a cell, a jail worked found her dead.

Hospital officials say they did all they were supposed to do for Brown. "Our records show that, in this case, everything that should have been done medically was done properly," according to a statement.

Acting Police Chief Maj. Roy Wright said his officers had no way of knowing Brown's dire condition when they arrested her and removed her from the hospital.

"A lot of times people don't want to stay in jail and will claim to be sick," he said. "We depend on medical officials to tell us they're OK."

State inspectors working for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - a federal agency that regulates hospitals - interviewed St. Mary's staff and reviewed medical records after the newspaper asked about Brown's case.

They found that when Brown arrived at St. Mary's around 11:45 a.m. on Sept. 20, her left ankle was swollen. She was there for about seven hours, during which ultrasounds on both of her legs were negative for blood clots.

Investigators said she returned eight hours later and was discharged at 7 a.m. the next day. Three hours later, she was still there and refusing to leave. After obtaining a "Fit for Confinement" report from a doctor at 12:30 p.m., officers took her to jail.

"My sister is not here today because people passed judgment," said one of her siblings, Krystle Brown.

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by softbelle11 March 31, 2012 11:59 AM EDT

I want to know which of you has a medical degree, or even a nursing degree. Where were the reports that she was experiencing shortness of breath or chest pain? An ultrasound of her legs to look for clots is the GOLD STANDARD, people, and it came back negative. There were no indications (at least not cited in the article above) that the clots had moved into her lungs during her time in the hospital. When a clot actually gets to the lung, it can very quickly become fatal. There is no fault here, not on the part of the hospital, not on the part of the police. It's a shame, and an unfortunate "miss" that the clots weren't found when they were stationary in her legs. My heart goes out to her children.

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by multimom12 March 31, 2012 5:18 PM EDT: I don't have a medical or nursing degree, I had my own experience and know a lot of people that were mis diagnosed including myself. I don't understand why she was discharged when she was in so much pain until they found a reason for the pain. The doctors told the cops she just wanted drugs and a place to sleep. Even on the fake show House they keep the patients there until they make a diagnosis.
She was not treated like a human being.


by sarah10113 January 5, 2013 11:12 PM EST: the reality is this is how the homeless and African Americans are treated. Plenty will argue its false but it's not. A white woman would not have been jailed. They accused her of wanting drugs and did NO tests to find out if she had any in her system. And if you watched the full video footage, they treated her inhumanly. Especially the police.


by multimom12 March 31, 2012 3:09 AM EDT: They are saying she had mental issues? I think some of these doctors out there are the ones with mental issues. I was misdiagnosed 5x by 5 different doctors. I had severe pain from what turned out to be a ruptured disc in my neck and kept being told it was a muscle. A blood clot in the leg is very painful. I think she was handling herself pretty well for being treated that way and being in that much pain. I would have been so pissed I would have been screaming at them. I feel so bad for that poor women. No one caring, and being mistreated and dragged out of the car and thrown on the floor, not even on one of the cots. This story broke my heart.; Reply to this comment


by d_fly64 March 30, 2012 10:16 PM EDT: Here's your death panel. I guess treating this homeless black woman violated their religious liberties. Too bad for her she couldn't afford health insurance.; Reply to this comment


by Dedering March 30, 2012 12:39 AM EDT: She was actually only in jail for a matter of moment, not hours, before she died. She was also not wheeled out. Watch the video of Anna Brown Arrest and Last Moments at http://youthrevolutionarycouncil(dot)org/?p=1073 Whoever wrote this article should have watched the video before writing this.; Reply to this comment

by plains_jane March 29, 2012 6:46 PM EDT

The fact that this woman was homeless is not relevant to the situation. The situation is: an adult was ill and sought medical treatment 3 times. 3 times medical personnel failed to identify her problem. When the adult insisted on more medical treatment because she was certain that her treatment was inadequate, the medical personnel had her arrested. Inadequate medical treatment was a contributing factor to her death.

This is something that could happen to any of us. It doesn't matter if you have insurance and a job because medical personnel can still be wrong and/or incompetent and have you arrested if you insist on questioning their decisions. The police are not medical personnel. The police got involved at the request of the medical personnel. This woman's death is due to the inadequate treatment she received from the medical personnel.

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by sarah10113 January 5, 2013 11:15 PM EST: Actually it's extremely relevant. I promise a white suburban woman wouldn't have been jailed for refusing to leave because of pain. The ER is required to run tests until they find out the problem. I watched the video, I saw the way they treated her and the things the cops said. No one drug tested her but made assumptions. It's disgusting and this is only one of so so many examples of racism and the way homeless are treated and misunderstood. I see it slmost everyday.

by rightontarget March 29, 2012 5:11 PM EDT

So now her family "wants answers"? Really? So just where were they all the time she was "homeless"? Oh yeah, I forgot, there wasn't a reason to sue anybody back then now was there? Now that she's dead, lets find somebody we can get some money from.

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by d_fly64 March 30, 2012 10:23 PM EDT: How do you know the rest of her family isn't homeless? The only thing we know is a homeless woman walked into an emergency room 3 times complaining about pain and instead of treating her, they arrested her. Now she's dead from complications of what she needed treatment for.

THIS is what a death panel actually looks like.

And this isn't how we should be treating people in America.

Hell, if I was an attorney, I'd offer to sue the hospital, the doctors, the nursing staff and the authorities - pro bono.


by sarah10113 January 5, 2013 11:16 PM EST: You should look up the facts. Her house was destroyed by a natural disaster and she lost everything. She had somewhat of a mental breakdown lost her job and custody. Her mother was forced to choose either the kids or her daughter to live with her and obviously the children came first. They tried very hard to help her but she became homeless.


by mgray2105 March 28, 2013 11:28 AM EDT: You dont know their situation and as a matter of fact her living situation dosent matter her children deserve every penny they can get from this tragic occurrance and after reading this story thats all your thinking about just shows the type of person you are no one deserves to be treated this way black white rich or poor and not to bring race up but opinions would be different if she was an white woman with a job and this happened our society is sad and the truth is this could have been avoided by proper medical care and not passing judgement

by caljack430 March 29, 2012 4:15 PM EDT

... and perhaps she was already in bad shape because her family wasn't supporting her when she was actually ALIVE. I don't claim to know her exact situation, but I am willing to bet that if she was truly homeless, and had lost custody of her children... her family certainly wasn't trying to help. Even if they aren't in the best of situations, if you actually care about someone, you'll find a way. I think they're just seizing an opportunity to get money out of an untimely and unfortunate death.

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by sarah10113 January 5, 2013 11:17 PM EST: They tried to help.read my comment above.


by mgray2105 March 28, 2013 11:36 AM EDT: Her family helping her is not the issue the issue is proper medical care this was avoidable not by anyone but the doctors if she had a job and a home and sprained her ankle and it happened then what would you say this could happen to anyone it wasnt because of the life she lived rich people sprain their ankle people are so heartless and at the end of the day she was judged by her apperance rather than her symptoms because if it was a bussiness woman they wouldnt have called the police and they would have treated her