In an extraordinary move, a federal lawsuit has been filed against University Medical Center (UMC) and Valley Hospital on behalf of a young woman who ended up giving birth at home after she was turned away from two emergency rooms because they supposedly didn't have the time to treat her when she was complaining of abdominal pains. She ended up giving birth to a baby girl, who subsequently passed away.

At the first hospital, she waited 6 hours before being told that they wouldn't be able to see her any time soon. She left there and went to the second hospital, where they supposedly treated her rudely and told her they probably wouldn't be able to treat her any sooner.

Both hospitals are accused of violating what's known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) by creating a hostile environment which encouraged a patient in physical distress to leave the hospital. The law usually covers what's known as patient dumping, encouraging patients to leave the hospital that don't have the means to pay.

At UMC, six employees have been placed on unpaid suspension as the hospital reviews what happened, and it's a strong possibility that not only will they be fired, but more people might be suspended and fired as well. The reaction at Valley is much different and troubling, as their mouthpiece, Kenneth Webster, is categorically denying that Valley did anything wrong, stating instead that the couple, the patient, Roshunda Abney, and the baby's father, Raffinee Dewberry, supposedly only came into the emergency room, didn't say what the problem was, and promptly left. Unfortunately for Mr. Webster, he apparently doesn't know the EMTALA law, which states that any patients coming in to the emergency room are supposed to be screened to determine the level of distress before being told anything, including being told that the emergency room is backed up.

The baby was born prematurely, at only 26 weeks, as a breach birth, and when paramedics arrived, was in distress. The tried to administer neonatal resuscitation, but the baby didn't respond. The coroner isn't releasing information on the full condition of the baby, because the determining factor will be whether the baby was truly sustainable on its own when born, which could raise the stakes higher.

In announcing the lawsuit, which seeks damages for emotional distress suffered by both Abney and Dewberry, it alleges that Valley's failure to appropriately screen and treat Abney are even more egregious than what happened at UMC because the emergency room staff there had the chance to identify and correct the failures of UMC. Instead of helping Abney the "unprofessional remarks" by Valley staff "created a hole in the safety net that led to the traumatic breach delivery."

By the way, both Abney and Dewberry are African-American, which could also lead to a discrimination lawsuit; this won't be pretty.