Karl Etters

Democrat staff writer

In the first 10 minutes of police dash-cam video, Bristol resident Barbara Dawson can be heard screaming for help, exasperated, her breathing labored.

"Oh my God, Oh my God, I can't breathe," Dawson repeated as she was being removed from the hospital by a Blountstown police officer.

Dawson then falls silent as she collapses next to a Blountstown Police Department cruiser that was waiting to take her to jail just before dawn on the morning of Dec. 20.

The more than two-and-a-half-hour long video, released Wednesday by Dawson’s family attorneys, the Tallahassee law firm Parks and Crump, is the first glimpse into the last minutes of the 57-year-old’s life.

During a news conference to announce the release of the video Wednesday morning, attorneys and her relatives allege Dawson was denied medical treatment by hospital staff, even as she complained of being in pain and gasping for air.

“You hear her from the time the officer arrives in her room. She’s in a panic telling him that she cannot breathe," said attorney Daryl Parks. "Even as they disconnect her oxygen against her will, she begs, 'I can’t breathe. Please don’t do this,' ” as the officer continues to tell her she is going to jail."

Dawson dash-cam video: a guide

The Blountstown Police Department was called when Dawson refused to leave the Calhoun Liberty Hospital after she had been discharged by doctors.

Audio in the video captures the moments her oxygen tube is unhooked and she is removed from the rural hospital in handcuffs by a Blountstown police officer. She had checked in the night before complaining of abdominal pain.

Dawson argued with the officer as he demanded that she peacefully leave the hospital before he placed her under arrest on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct.

The officer can be heard in the video telling her she can “either walk out of the hospital peacefully or I can take you out of the hospital. You’ve been discharged. You have to leave,” and seek treatment at another facility.

Dawson, who appears only briefly on the dash-cam video, collapsed next to the police car outside the hospital. She died about an hour later due to a blood clot in her lung, according to an autopsy.

Nearly a dozen of Dawson’s family members choked back tears as they joined their attorneys Wednesday. Her cousin, Martha Dickson, however, was the only one to speak reporters during the news conference.

They can’t bring Dawson back, but her death should stand for something, Dickson said.

"Police are supposed to protect and serve," Dickson told reporters. "The hospital is supposed to save lives. When Barbara, our family member, went to the hospital she was denied all of those rights. So her family is saying today, we can’t bring Barbara back. No one can bring her back. Therefore we want justice for Barbara so this will not happen to anyone else."

BPD Chief Mark Mallory said his officer acted appropriately in summoning medical staff within minutes of Dawson’s collapse. Generally, officers are trained in CPR and often look to the expertise of medical professionals in providing life-saving endeavors.

Any interference by his officer in the medical treatment being given to Dawson in the hospital’s parking lot would have been reckless, Mallory said.

Suggestions by the Dawson family otherwise is “misleading and illogical,” he continued.

“It is important to recognize that law enforcement officers are not trained medical professionals,” Mallory said in a statement.

But State Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, who is working as co-counsel with Parks and Crump, said what happened to Dawson is a case of someone’s medical needs taking a back seat to the demand to put someone in jail.

"We think what they did was put criminality over health care," Rouson said. "We think what they did here was compromise public safety by failing to give her the medical attention that she needed. This is a case of vitals versus verbals."

Eleven minutes elapse from the time Dawson collapses beside the police car, with the officer and staff trying to get her inside, until medical assistance arrives.

That is a critical period in the incident, Parks said.

"We believe from a medical standpoint, and from a policeman’s standpoint, that is significant in the delay that you have there," Parks said. "There was not deliberate speed to assist her."

Also significant, Parks said, is when the officer radios to his captain that he thought Dawson was being non-compliant.

"We now know that that assumption cost Barbara Dawson her life," Parks said. "We are very troubled. Barbara Dawson shouldn’t have lost her life because of a bad assumption from either a law enforcement officer or hospital personnel."

BPD, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration have all launched their own independent investigations.

Hospital officials have maintained that the blood clot, which killed Dawson, is hard to detect and even harder to treat.

In a statement released Wednesday, the hospital's CEO Ruth Attaway said she is still reviewing the tape and would remain committed to assisting the ongoing investigations while making changes to better help patients.

"First, we continue to grieve the loss of a patient and a member of the community. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Ms. Dawson as well as with our community," Attaway said in a statement. "We are also in process of setting up a medical and community task force in coordination with Rev. R.B. Holmes to review best practices and better communication to move our hospital forward. We owe our community nothing less."

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.