‘They just did not care’: Las Cruces woman alleges discrimination in hospital emergency room

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- On one of the most difficult days of her life, a Las Cruces cancer survivor said she experienced discrimination at the hands of those meant to help her.

"They just did not care," said Yolanda Cooper, 66. "I think it was just racially motivated. That's who they saw me as, is some old black female. End of story."

Cooper's cancer diagnosis

In 2015, Cooper said she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Doctors ordered an immediate surgery and she began chemotherapy.

"It is devastating to the body and the soul," Cooper told ABC-7. “I started photographing the different changes.”

The newly diagnosed cancer patient took a 'seflie' after each stage of chemotherapy. Ultimately, she recreated each image, painting a large floor-to-ceiling self portrait with geographical shapes that depicted the effects of chemotherapy on her body.

“It was a means of a release from the trauma that I was going through," said Cooper, who used the project as her thesis to earn her Master's in Fine Arts at New Mexico State University. “It occupies your mind. It kind of frees the inner feelings you have going on inside of you.”

A stressful emergency room visit

In September 2017, Cooper told ABC-7 she was admitted to the Memorial Medical Center emergency room with excruciating pain.

"I was actually on hands and knees in my home and just in pain that I had never felt," Cooper said.

She said the doctor diagnosed her with a kidney stone, gave her medicine and discharged her.

"I said to her, I said, 'I can't move,'" Cooper recalled. "I said, 'The pain is too excruciating. I can't move.' Her attitude was, 'We're discharging you.' And I said, 'I just can't move.'"

The cancer survivor said she was vomiting from the pain.

"The next thing I know, there's someone coming in the room. 'Ms. Cooper!'" she recalled. "It was the Las Cruces police. 'You have to go!' I said, 'It hurts to move. I cannot move. Too much pain.'

Through an open records request, ABC-7 obtained the 911 call from that afternoon.

"I have a patient who has been discharged and is refusing to leave the room and the premises, the hospital employee told the 911 operator. "We need an officer to come over here."

"Are they being aggressive or anything like that?" the dispatcher asked.

"No," the employee replied. "Just refusing to leave."

Cooper was never arrested, but according to a police document, Memorial Medical Center asked police to remove her for trespassing.

“I was just totally dumbfounded, shocked," she said. "I found it unbelievable.”

Memorial Medical Center's response

In September of this year, a spokeswoman for Memorial Medical Center told ABC-7 that the hospital could not comment on specific cases because of patient privacy, but that staffers take concerns seriously.

"We have zero tolerance for discrimination and take allegations of such behavior very seriously," said Anita Rockett.

After seeking treatment elsewhere, Cooper said she was diagnosed with a bone spur.

“Every movement would cause that to the jab into my nerves," Cooper said. "Once I calmed down from all the medication, I began to really think about the wrong that had been done to me by me being evicted from Memorial Medical Center without cause."

She told ABC-7 she has filed complaints with the state, the Las Cruces Police Department, the Doña Ana County District Attorney's Office and Memorial Medical Center.

This summer, almost two years after the incident, she received a letter from Memorial Medical Center CEO John Harris that terminating her as a patient from the hospital and all medical offices affiliated with the hospital.

As a cancer survivor, Cooper said she had to find another oncologist.

"While the hospital will always care for any individual who presents in the Emergency Room for treatment, occasionally, we make the difficult decision to end our non-emergency relationships with patients," Rockett said. "These are rare situations and are typically the result of offensive behavior toward our staff and providers."

Cooper said she wants a review of hospital procedures, compensation for her experience and an apology from the hospital.

“This cannot be systematic of how you treat people, period, Cooper said. "That’s not right.”