Charles Johnson wore a button with a picture of his wife, Kira, during a press conference announcing a lawsuit outside a hospital. Kira Johnson died at the hospital after giving birth.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/APThe husband of a black woman who bled to death after giving birth to a baby at a Los Angeles hospital sued the hospital on Wednesday, saying she bled to death because of a culture of racism.
During depositions in his wrongful death lawsuit, Charles Johnson IV said he discovered a disparity in the care women of color receive at Cedars compared to white women.
If my wife were a white woman, she would be here today and be here Sunday celebrating Mother's Day with my boys.
The couple's second son, Langston, was delivered in 17 minutes after Johnson died from a scheduled cesarean section.
This is sloppy. The head of labor and delivery looked at it and said it was butchery.
Kira Johnson was not readmitted to the operating room until it was too late, despite signs she was bleeding internally and her husband's pleas.
According to the lawsuit, a nurse told Charles Johnson that his wife was not a priority.
She died from internal bleeding and most of her blood was found in her stomach. Her bladder was lacerated and she hadn't been sutured.
The hospital said in a statement that it was founded on principles of diversity and health care for all and that it rejected any mischaracterization of our culture and values.
The statement said that they are working to eradicate unconscious bias in health care and advance equity in health care more broadly.
The death of Kira Johnson led her husband to advocate for reducing maternal mortality, which is high for Black women.
Black women died at 2.5 times the rate of white women before the Pandemic, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
A recent bill that would lift the cap on medical malpractice awards is one of a number of bills that Charles Johnson has testified in favor of.
The malpractice law currently caps awards at $250,000. The case is scheduled to go to trial in May, though recent court filings indicated the two sides were close to reaching a settlement.
The civil rights case would allow Johnson to collect damages and hold Cedars-Sinai accountable. He wants the hospital to make changes to protect mothers and women of color.
Brietta Clark, a professor at Loyola Law School, said that it is difficult to prove a civil rights violation in health care.
Compared to when civil rights laws were enacted, a lot of the kind of treatment that we see in health care today does not seem to be explicit.
Johnson tried to change the malpractice case to add the civil rights action because deposition excerpts did not show that the hospital discriminated against black patients.
According to court papers, Dr. Gregory testified that she lives with structural racism every day and that it prevents Black patients from receiving the same care as whites. She said that Kira Johnson should have returned to the operating room sooner.
Dr. Sarah Kilpatrick testified that she apologized to Charles Johnson. We failed your family. This shouldn't have happened.
When Kira Johnson came into the operating room, the patient safety door was not open.
Washington, who has more than 30 years of experience, said she was afraid to speak up because she had seen different treatment of Black women.
Washington said that when he sees black patients, he says an extra prayer. You have racism in the operating room.
Clark said that the evidence identified as weak was more general statements and not specifically about discrimination by the provider. She said that the key thing for Johnson's legal team will be to show a pattern of discrimination.
The effort to amend the case was a long shot. He will be able to use the data from the additional depositions to support his claim in the new lawsuit.
He said that Kira died because she was black. That is a fact.
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