Cop Arrests Man For Taking Wife To Emergency Room

June 18, 2010 6:27 PM
John Pless

What was supposed to be a honeymoon and week of vacation has turned into a nightmare for a couple who work at Erlanger Medical Center.

Eric Wright was arrested by a Chattanooga Police officer when he rushed his wife Aline to the emergency room at Erlanger with stroke symptoms.

The couple married this last Sunday and were taking their only vacation allowed for the year at Erlanger when Aline got very sick Wednesday night. Her face was drooping and her speech was slurred. Eric is a medic and served tours with the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Aline is a registered nurse. Both knew they had to get to an emergency room fast.

"I would like an apology from the officer because he indeed delayed my care," Aline Wright said.

Mrs. Wright became a registered nurse after she lost a leg to cancer a few years ago. Her chemotherapy caused a heart condition that could create a blood clot and trigger a stroke.

So Eric carried his wife, who was not wearing her prosthetic leg, into his car and drove straight to Erlanger. The trouble began at the corner of Holzclaw and McCallie where Mr. Wright said he had his emergency flashers on and blew his horn. He was on his cellphone talking to his co-workers at Erlanger, letting them know he was on the way with an emergency.

"And I proceeded cautiously through the red light and at that time an officer in a cruiser pulled from Holzclaw and onto McCallie behind me and followed me from that point," Mr. Wright said.

Wright said he continued to Erlanger blowing his horn with his emergency flashers on and went through another red light.

"Before we reached the front doors of the emergency room, the sliding automatic doors, the policeman got between us and the door and started to say to my husband I am going to arrest you," Mrs. Wright said.

Mr. Wright said as he carried his wife around Officer Jim Daves his colleagues in the ER helped them to a room to begin immediate evaluation and treatment.

"Officer Daves and I never made physical contact," Mr. Wright said.

In officer Dave's written affidavit, he writes "defendant stopped in the ER entrance and jumped out and ran. Police made contact with Defendant at the passenger side of his vehicle and I grabbed the defendant’s arm and he pushed me away scraping my arm with his fingernail. Defendant yelled and said it was an emergency…”

“Defendant pushed through the crowd and carried a female back into the emergency room and place her in a room with no permission of the hospital staff,” Daves writes.

But the ER staff was in fact waiting for Wright and his wife.

"The officer followed me into the emergency room and repeatedly entered the patient room to approach me and repeatedly interrupted the patient care," Wright said. "The other medical professionals had to push him aside and inform him it's not appropriate and he needed to wait outside."

Wright said Daves told him to turn himself into the Hamilton County Jail, where he would be charged with a felony. Wright said when he asked what felony he would be charged with, Daves said "I'll think of something you sh-- head."

So Wright went to the jail Thursday night as a NewsChannel camera was rolling. Wright waited for quite a long time before a jail employee told him there were no warrants against him.

But Friday morning, as Wright was in the hospital room where his wife Aline was admitted, Daves had Erlanger security arrest him and take him to the jail. Wright is charged with assaulting a police officer, disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment, evading arrest, two red light violations and registration violation.

Both Wrights said that Officer Daves never asked about the medical emergency or whether they needed help getting into the ER.

"I am still very concerned that he [Daves] did not have any concern or interest in the medical situation that was taking place, rather than what seemed to me to be an interest in a traffic violation," Mr. Wright said.

Wright's wife said because of Officer Daves actions her husband has been suspended from Erlanger since he was charged with a felony. That means he won't be bringing a paycheck home and she will be out of work while her medical condition is being evaluated and treated.

"Instead of us uniting and being together as a family he's having to deal with being charged with trying to save his wife," Mrs. Wright said.

The director of Erlanger's Heart-Stroke Center, Dr. Francis Fesmire, wrote a letter saying Eric Wright did the right thing by rushing his wife to the ER, and had he waited for an ambulance that would have added 20-30 minutes time to her arrival at the hospital. Dr. Fesmire is asking police to show some mercy and drop the charges.

Chattanooga Police Public Information Officer Lieutenant Kim Noorbergen said the department will not comment about the incident.

Wright is scheduled to be in Judge Clarence Clarence Shattuck's Hamilton County General Sessions Court July 9 at 8:30. He is free from jail after posting a $7,500 bond.

From: http://www.newschannel9.com/news/couple-992252-emergency-wife.html