A day care teacher, complaining of chest pains, waited for hours at a Wisconsin emergency room Jan. 2. After two hours with no answers from doctors, she decided to leave. She would later die while trying to find other medical care.
The family of 25-year-old Tashonna Ward is seeking answers as to why she did not receive care quicker at Froedtert Hospital after reporting of chest pains and shortness of breath, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. While waiting at the Wauwatosa hospital for two hours, Ward was not being monitored in the waiting room, the family told the newspaper.
Though the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office has not determined a cause of death, the family’s spokesperson believes the hospital is at fault.
“How can you triage someone with shortness of breath and chest pain, and stick them in the lobby?” said Ward's cousin, Andrea Ward. “Froedtert needs to change their policy."
The family is set to meet with hospital representatives next week. Froedtert released a statement of condolences to the family.
“The family is in our thoughts and has our deepest sympathy. We cannot comment further at this time.” Officials did not answer questions from news media about the death or general emergency department procedures.
What led Tashonna Ward to the emergency room?
Witnesses say Ward was having trouble breathing and chest pains about 4 p.m. Jan. 2, while working at L&M Links, a child care center at 80th and Burleigh in Milwaukee. She checked in at Froedtert about 4:58 p.m., according to the medical examiner's report.
According to that report, hospital staff assessed her heartbeat with an electrocardiogram, which appeared normal. The chest X-ray revealed cardiomegaly: an enlarged heart. The report does not list what happened after the tests.
By 5:45 p.m., Ward reportedly posted on Facebook: “I really hope I’m not in this emergency room all night.”
Ward’s mom told the newspaper that she had been texting with her daughter for hours Jan. 2. By 7:35 p.m., the 25-year-old posted one last time, stating she was told her wait would be up to six hours.
"Idk what they can do about the emergency system at freodert (sic) but they damn sure need to do something," she wrote. "I been here since 4:30 something for shortness of breath, and chest pains for them to just say it's a two to SIX hour wait to see a dr."
In years past, patients have spent an average of 4 hours, 44 minutes in Froedtert's emergency department before being admitted to the hospital, according to data pulled from a 2018 ProPublica.
What happened after Tashonna Ward left?
Ward reportedly left about the time of her 7:30 p.m. Facebook post. She headed to an urgent care clinic, and her sister, Brianna, had picked her up to get her insurance card and be by her side. Froedtert staff called Ward’s cellphone about 8:39 p.m., and her sister picked up the call. By 9:07 p.m., an ambulance was headed to Ward, and she was almost immediately pronounced dead.
Experts say the main question lingering is did Ward receive monitoring by a doctor while in the emergency room. When patients complain of chest pains, which typically means heart problems, a physician usually assesses a patient within minutes, Martha Gulati, chief of cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, told the Sentinel.
It's common that those symptoms are not addressed as soon as they should be, statistically. A 2018 study by the Journal of the American Heart Association showed that women were three times more likely to die in the year after having a heart attack in comparison to their male counterparts due to lack of treatment. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the U.S., but women often dismiss symptoms, according to the American Heart Association.
“Sadly she chalks up to another statistic, but she was somebody’s sister, somebody’s potential mother, somebody’s daughter," Gulati said of Ward. “We need to start listening to women and taking them seriously.”
Andrea Ward said she hopes her cousin’s death would lead to changes at Froedtert and elsewhere. Ward’s nickname was Shonna.
“She would always say, 'I’m Shonna because I’m sunshine,' " Andrea said. "She was sunshine.”
Andrea Ward is raising funds for funeral services at bit.ly/shonnaward.
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