Patient Safety | 06.24.24
Four Tops Singer Says Hospital Put Him in Straitjacket After Not Believing He Was in Four Tops
by NAMSS Staff
NBC News (06/11/24) Lenthang, Marlene
Alexander Morris, the lead singer of Motown's Four Tops, is suing Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren, Michigan, claiming racial discrimination after staffers assumed he was "delusional" when he said he was in the group and subsequently placed him in restraints. The 53-year-old, who is Black, is not an original member of the legendary group. He joined the quartet in 2018. On April 7, 2023, he went to the hospital for chest pain and difficulty breathing and was placed on oxygen, said the federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Michigan. However, when he informed a nurse and a security guard that he was a member of the Four Tops and had security concerns due to fans, they did not believe him, the suit charges. Instead, a physician ordered a psychological evaluation, and he was put in a restraining jacket for at least an hour and a half. The suit accuses the hospital and the employees involved of negligence, racial discrimination, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
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