Hospital discharges deaf non verbal autistic at 2AM

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The older sister of Samantha Denise Primus, who is deaf, non-verbal and autistic, couldn’t believe that Primus was found in a cold, soaking rain on Dec. 23, taken to Queens Hospital Center, and then discharged into the dead of night in the early hours of Christmas Eve.

“As per the hospital, she was discharged at 2 o’clock in the morning on Christmas Eve,” the missing woman’s sister, Joanna Peck, told PIX11 News. “You’re telling me you gave her a list of shelters to go to?”

The Brooklyn resident had been visiting her sister in Elmont, Long Island in advance of the Christmas holidays, because their mother had gone to St. Lucia to visit a brother who was having surgery.

Peck said her sister made it clear on Thursday evening, Dec. 22, that she wanted to go back to Brooklyn. But Peck said Primus, known as Denise, agreed to stay three more days.

“Among us, we have our own sign language,” Peck said, “and we really understand each other.”

Peck said her sister indicated she was fine with the plans to wait a few days.

“She gave me a thumbs up and smiled when I went to work,” Peck said.

Yet hours later, home security footage showed Primus leaving her sister’s house about 4 in the morning on Friday, Dec. 23.

There was a howling wind outside, along with an icy rain, during a day when hundreds of flights were canceled for holiday travelers.

oanna Peck eventually learned that 16 hours later, someone called an ambulance for her sister at 190th Street and Hillside Avenue in Hollis, Queens—about three and half miles away from Elmont.

“Someone had to have seen her laying on the ground,” Peck said. “She was down on the ground.”

The ambulance took Primus to the emergency room at Queens Hospital Center, where she was evaluated. She reportedly told the staff her leg was hurting her. Personnel noted that she was disheveled. Primus reportedly received Tylenol for the leg pain.

In the meantime, Primus’ family was filing a missing persons report with Nassau County Police.

The family then learned they would have to file a new missing persons report with the NYPD, because Primus had disappeared a second time after visiting the hospital in Queens.

“They should have been better trained,” Joanna Peck said of the people who dealt with her sister. “I would have to say, ‘We can’t let this person out. I would call the police.'”

Primus is one of 10 siblings born in St. Lucia who later settled in New York and Canada.  

Primus has lived for years with her mother and brother on East 91st Street in Brooklyn. As a teen, she once disappeared and made her way to the Bronx.

This is the longest time Samantha Denise Primus has ever been gone from home. Her sister feels badly she initially disappeared from Elmont.

“My heart is breaking right now, knowing that she left from my house,” Joanna Peck said. “I want to tell people, ‘Just pay attention, because she’s not the kind of individual to ask for help.'”

Is she still missing from the discharge?
I'm a bit confused by the end of the story.

The hospital treated the ailment the woman was brought in for and released her, just like they would anywhere else. Could the hospital have done better? Possibly. At the time, however the woman wasn't listed as missing, guilty of any criminal offense, or known to be incompetent.

Can you imagine the headlines if a deaf person was held at the hospital while social workers searched for a responsible adult to take charge of them simply because they came to the hospital with a sore leg?

The hospital did what hospitals do. A woman is brought in late at night complaining of leg pain, she's examined, treated, and sent home. she wasn't woken from her bed and forced out into the cold after being an inpatient at all. The fact is she wanted to go to her mother's house, no one would take her, so she decided to walk. (admitted rater a long way). Straining her leg. Her own family didn't even know she left the house, and was unaware of the fact for half a day. If there is negligence here, then it starts at home.

Would anyone really rather the hospital presumed her incompetent, held her in a cell for 72 hours, performed a psychological evaluation, forcibly medicated her and then made her a ward of the state because she repeatedly eloped from home where she was found to have inadequate supervision? It could easily have turned out like that.

A deaf, non-verbal person at 2AM?

Society will never see autistic people as people that are living, breathing humans with the same basic human rights and needs as NTs.

Most deaf people are nonverbal - and yes, if you come in at 1 am and merely need tylenol, chances are you will be discharged by 2 am

She was treated like everyone else - that's what folks are complaining about.

Just have her go out in the street. Don't offer to call a cab for her?

Have they circulated pictures? I guess I was confused because they didn’t give a description of her or a number to call if she’s found.

If she needed extra care, why weren't the staff informed?

I do agree with what you're saying here. Laws are laws and they did what the laws were written for. Imagine not being allowed to leave due to your disability?

Most deaf people are nonverbal - and yes, if you come in at 1 am and merely need tylenol, chances are you will be discharged by 2 am