It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Kevin Krall 0:03
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Zandra Polard 0:38
Good morning Las Vegas it's Zondra Polare. With it's where I am. today. My guest is Sheree long. And Las Vegas chapter president of the National Action Network. Robert bush. Today Sheree long will be giving us her personal testimony about what happened to her and her daughter due to first responder and hospital negligence. Sheree, thank you for being here and sharing your story with us. This show is to educate the public on how to advocate for your loved ones when they have mental health issues, mental health disabilities. Thank you again and please can you tell us what happened with your daughter?

Unknown Speaker 1:28
Thank you Sondra, for having me. On November 25, of 2020. My daughter lost control of her wheelchair and hit a step and was eject it from the chair and landed on her head and shoulder. A goose egg arrived a rose on her head almost immediately. So we call 911. Okay. And when the first responders came out, they looked at her she was alert. She was awake. And they decided she didn't need to go to the hospital.

Zandra Polard 2:05
So the first responders come out they do an assessment on your daughter who is 31 years old. Yes. However, she was special needs. And they decided they did her vitals and said okay, we're not going to take her. Yes. Okay. And you had a problem with that, because you knew something was wrong with your child. Excuse me, you knew something was wrong with your daughter, and she needed medical attention.

Unknown Speaker 2:31
Yes. I have a background in nursing row. I knew that the type of head injury she had had could be a potential brain bleed. And I wanted her checked out and a CT scan test to be done to clear her of that to make before I felt that she was okay. So I want her to go to the hospital so that they can do the appropriate testing right to actually say that she's fine,

Zandra Polard 3:05
right? So if a first responder comes out and they do your vitals and it says and say we don't think it's necessary to take the person to the hospital, but you knew something was wrong. So then what do you do? What I understand you did was you talk with them for about 15 minutes. Yeah, right to convince them to take her. Okay. So you had to go do a back and forth for 15 minutes after the injury? Yes. To get them to take her to the hospital. Yes. Okay. So that 15 minutes happens, she gets to the hospital. What happens once she gets to the hospital.

Unknown Speaker 3:48
The paramedics gave a report to the medical staff at the hospital. They put my daughter in the hallway on a gurney without any monitors or anything. And she threw up immediately. Which means what? In the medical field ahead, injury and vomiting is a red flag for some form of brain injury as light as a concussion to as severe as a brain bleed.

Zandra Polard 4:19
Okay, so you're just, they just left you on the wayside. No medical attention was given for a total of approximately how many hours?

Unknown Speaker 4:32
Well, the test wasn't done for over an hour after we got there. for over an hour after it was written. The order was written for the CAT scan or the CAT scan an x ray. Okay. Yes. And by the time she actually got the treatment that would warrant saving her life was actually over three hours later from the time of her fall. She fell at 245. And she didn't get rushed to surgery.

Zandra Polard 5:05
Which is amazing to me because we had a conversation about this before, you know, she came on the show. And when I know whenever I've been into the, you know, gone to the emergency room or a loved one, the first thing that happens is that IV, so if it doesn't happen in the ambulance is going to happen once you get into the hospital. Yeah, but there was no IV.

Unknown Speaker 5:29
No, there was no IV, no assessment from the nurses. No interview of her history to find out. You know, what's normal for her? What's not normal for her?

Zandra Polard 5:42
There was nothing and no one spoke with you.

Unknown Speaker 5:45
No one spoke with me at all. Okay.

Zandra Polard 5:48
So at some point, your daughter was Shana. Yes. Let's Shauna became lethargic. Yeah. So she had already vomited. Then she became lethargic, which was another warning sign, right? Yeah. So as she became lethargic, then you have to direct your attention on leshawna, to make sure that you're keeping her revived or awake, right? Yes, to the best of my ability, right. So while doing that, you still have to look and see and make sure that the staff is doing what they're supposed to be doing, which they weren't. Exactly. Okay. This is such an unfortunate story. I met Srei at a national act at a National Action Network meeting. And when she got up and spoke, I said, Hey, I've heard this story. I've heard this before. And so I wanted to meet her. And I want to talk with her. Because when I read about it on social media, I was intrigued, and I was disappointed. And I was hurt. Because my brother was a first responder. And I know there was absolutely no way that he would be so negligent. And so my heart really reached out to you. And I am so very sorry, about the loss of your the loss of your, your daughter. I want to thank and welcome President Robert bush of the Las Vegas chapter of Nan, for being here. Can you tell us how you met with Mr. Ray long? And what is your I am what I have as the organization done to support her?

Unknown Speaker 7:41
Yeah, well, first, let me say thank you for inviting us into your wonderful, beautiful home in this amazing studio. And having us in to talk about this important topic. And I don't know a lot of people know but National Action Network was founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton. And, and our mission is to fight for those who either have lost their rights or either don't have lost their voice. So we give voice to the voiceless. And so Shaarei got in touch with us in June of 2021. And and let us know about her situation. And and so we decided that we would get in the fight for the justice for LaShana. And, and although this has been a long fight, we haven't given up giving up we haven't got the results that we need yet, which is up to and including changing laws that affect Special Needs victims. So at National Action Network, we believe that it's not enough to just shout not enough to just voice our opinion. But we should take things from demonstration to legislation. And so we're happy to partner with serais, who is also I helped them disabilities chair, she decided to put her passion into action. Okay, so that we could partner into into this fight at any time. This is this is she is a microcosm of a bigger problem, right? She's a microcosm of bigger problem where we're blacks typically don't get treated. All minorities don't, particularly blacks don't get treated the way that they should, when they need health care services,

Zandra Polard 9:36
right. It made me think about, like, you know, the early 1900s When, you know, black people weren't able to go to the hospital or they weren't getting any service and they were just, you know, waiting in the hallway without getting any help. I mean, that this is happening now.

Unknown Speaker 9:52
Yes. And that's one of the things that my mission is at the National Action Network. It is to bring awareness to the community, right that these type things are happening. Everyone who has heard my daughter's story is in shock, that it even occurs occurs that a paramedic will refuse to take someone to the hospital, the different things that took place. It's just shocking to everyone. And it's because no one knows that this type of stuff happens. And it's happening. If it happened to my daughter, it's happening every day to other people. They just don't have a voice. You asked what did the National Action Network do to help me, they gave me a forum, to be able to speak, to even be here, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Robert, in the National Action Network. This is how we fight. We bring awareness to everyone. So that when we do go from demonstration to legislation, the voters will know what they're fighting for. They'll have a history behind their vote. And so that's why I am proud to be a part of the National Action Network. It's actually saved my life, in a sense, because I don't know what I'd be doing. If I wasn't fighting for the people. Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Nevada, and eventually the country. We want to import make changes for everyone so that everyone gets equality. When it comes to health care. People should see the health care workers should see lives, precious lives, not black people, not gay people, not disabled people. They just see lives. And they're all super taken to save lives, not particular lives, but all lives.

Zandra Polard 11:47
Wow. This is an emotional show. We're talking about negligence from first responders that calls in the hospital that cause charade Long's daughter leshawna Matthews to pass away. Now she was in the hospital for 29 days. Yeah, right. So let me back up a little bit. After arguing with first responders. You get her? They get her to a hospital, but not a hospital that could help her. So there was a lot of time taken up. Yeah, right. There were hours taken up. That prevented her from getting the help that she needed. She finally gets to the hospital where she needs to be. And she's in surgery. I believe you told me six hours or more. Yes. And then she went through recovery and stayed in recovery for 29 days. Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 12:43
She went to the ICU ICU for to trauma. ICU. Right, right. Right. She Well, she went to trauma ICU. The the damage to her brain had been so extensive that after 12 hours, they had to go back in and do another brain surgery to clear out some of the blood and

Zandra Polard 13:06
due to time wasted. If you feel that you need to go to the hospital and you're assessed, and they tell you you're fine. Go anyway. Yes. Okay, go anyway. So now I want to introduce a good friend of mine should Donna Nelson, who works on the federal level to advocate for victims such as yourself, and she helps to create laws and get laws to legislation so that we can do that so that she and we can make a change. Shaitaan I want to thank you for being here.

Unknown Speaker 13:43
Thank you so much for having me. It's always an honor. I was just sitting back listening to that story. And it was absolutely terrible. It's completely agreed just on the part of the hospital staff, and the EMS responders. And I would love to help in any way that I could. Thank you.

Zandra Polard 14:05
Yes. So now how do you help victims like this? What is the process like for you? How does one reach you?

Unknown Speaker 14:14
So that's the money question. How am I reachable? You can reach out to me through the fibers there are a PR firm which is a firm that I own. And obviously there are many people like you who would have my contact. The process is different in all cases. It starts with a conversation between myself and the victim. I work with victims of all sorts so from officer involved shootings to any kind of civil rights infractions or anything of that sort and malpractice suits of course, in a situation like this since I've spoken to her and and I've heard what's going on here. First I want to know all the moving pieces I would want to know the timeline after knowing the timeline For our conversation, my first thing is to make sure the family of the victim or if the victim is still here at, you know, it said not in this case would be to see if I can get them some mental health services or if they're needing anything, any kind of necessities. At that point, I would assess what happened here and see what I can do. Do I help you get connected to a lawyer who works with me? Should we set up a nonprofit to bring in funding that will ultimately help fund any kind of advocacy and marching and murals that we will want to put up or maybe a bit to raise awareness? And then we kind of go to that final stage once we leave, you know, increased the outreach and the image of whoever's advocating, and then we talk about laws. Laws look different at each level, and rather, is the county state federal levels and we say, what are we trying to accomplish here? So what is the law we're trying to put in place? Right, and we would kind of talk that out. And then we would go through the process of actually drafting and creating this and getting other influences to come in and help out.

Zandra Polard 16:10
Now it should turn out what I do know is that Sheree was expressing to me about the statutes in her case, and that once she kind of got support from any law, lawyer or attorney, her stead the statute was pretty much over was like one year. So it took like, eight months, is that correct? For you to even get the hospital records? Yeah. Yeah. So in her case, what do you do? Is there any way to like, extend that statute? And then there was COVID. So I mean, helped me out.

Unknown Speaker 16:51
So in situations like this, I cannot speak from a legal aspect, and I won't, but there is always something that you can do generally with the correct lawyer, right. So there will be things in place that will have a timeframe of maybe like a year. But there are other things you can explore in most cases, civilly. Right. And if you can find any kind of malpractice or something that wouldn't fall, or if you can prove that there was some kind of bias or violation of a civil rights, then that looks completely different than the rules and regulations that they lay out. So what again, it's kind of what I do when I kind of sit down and in the pick the case and see everything that I can find out about it. And then I reach out to my network of civil rights attorneys malpractice attorneys class action suit, Texas hospital, do they have a history of negligence, right? But they have a history of being bias, because of something we're looking at something completely different. And that comes into play, you really got to lay it out and look at it as a whole. There's always a way I believe. And then you go on, and you start asking different influencers and other families to come in. Because what I've seen in a lot of cases, if this is ran out for one family, and this is other crowd, it's like, wait, I was there last week? Well, now you have something to fight with. Right? Right. There last week, I experienced this. And although they don't have the medical records, yet, we have a history and we're showing a pattern, and we're able to break that pattern. And in the in most cases, if you can't do that, and you can't see see civil ways. That's why you get to talking to legislators about laws and preventing this from happening to anyone else, and you go about it that way.

Zandra Polard 18:45
Well, I thank you again for being here. fatahna Nelson from the finest hour PR. Thank you again for being here. You know, you are always welcome. And you're always, always such a wonderful help and delight. Thank you for giving us your Yes, absolutely. We'll see you again. Okay, so now we're going to be talking to you, Mr. Robert Bush about what Nan is doing. I know there's an upcoming event soon about the color of Canada color of care. Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about that. The color

Unknown Speaker 19:21
of care is a documentary by vets produced executive produced by Oprah Winfrey, that's gone across the country, and it has to do with dealing with the health disparities in minority communities. And we're going to be partnering with SEIU Local 1107. Okay, and to put this event on, and basically our focus is on making sure that our people will make sure we break down the paradigm that that is surrounds our people in terms of getting the right health care. Good. Getting the right services, and making sure that they're able to see the right person when they go into a healthcare facility.

Zandra Polard 20:09
Well, since I have you talking now, I would like for you to let our listeners know, if they need to find any support here in Las Vegas for any issues they may have, how can they reach out to Nan? Sure,

Unknown Speaker 20:21
you can reach out to us at at n number of different ways. Okay. First of all, you can reach out to us on Facebook and Twitter and, and Instagram, all of the different social media sites. Also, we have an upcoming meeting that takes place at Nevada Partners on Monday, August the first at 530. And and at that time, you can can express any things that you may have going on in the community, what you're doing the community, and and talk to us about any issues that you might have. And then you can also reach out to us at National Action Network lv.net National Action Network lv.net on our website.

Zandra Polard 21:05
All right. Well, I attended my first Nan meeting last month. And what I loved about it was that it wasn't like it didn't go over. Right. So you guys were very respectful of everyone's time. You got us in you informed us and then we left. So please, I hope to see you there. I know I'll be there. And I look forward to to being there. So thank you. And I want to thank you Srei, for sharing your personal story about your unfortunate, you know, happening on my heart reaches out to you. Thank you. I'm so sorry, again, my deepest condolences. Is there anything you want our listeners to know before we end,

Unknown Speaker 21:49
I just would like for all of the listeners to just be prepared to go and vote. If you haven't registered to vote, get registered, because we are going to be working towards making some changes here in Las Vegas. To make it a better place for everyone. And we need your help. We can't do it alone being the the voters. So everyone, you do have a voice. Contrary to some belief, you do have a voice and we need it. So that would be the best way to help just when you hear the story when you hear, hear about the bills and the different laws that are gonna go into place. Remember my story and come out and vote.

Zandra Polard 22:32
Beautiful. Thank you. Well, this is Andhra poll art. It's where I am. And thank you so much for tuning in. You can find me on social media at it's where I am LV. You can also find me on all major podcast platforms. It's where I am with Zondra you got to put that with Zondra in there. Yeah, yeah. So and then also, there's my website. If you have any show ideas or if you would like to be on the show pertaining to mental health. Please fill out the because the third page, the contact information and let me know and I'll reach back out to you. Alrighty, so I am here every second Saturday of the month at 8:30am. And we'll see you next month. Thank you. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai