Irin Carmon

And I learned in my reporting that four years apart, they had the same doctor.

And by the time doctors finally realized what was happening with Christine, it was too late to save her life.

Not only in the aftermath was the family not given answers as they were protesting outside on a weekly basis, but Jose had to fight to bring home his son.

He was locked out of their family home, even though it was also in their children's names.

for over a year.

And he has become a maternal health advocate.

He's actually trained as a doula and he's training medical students to prevent anything like this from happening again.

So I initially reached out to Woodhull, and they were responsive to me coming in for an interview until I said—this is when Christine was alive—they told me I could come in and interview midwives and doctors.

And I said, I'm also going to ask you about Sha'Asia Semple, who died in June 2020 at the hands of an anesthesiologist at Woodhull.

And they canceled the interview and no one ever called me back again.

And I made repeated attempts to reach out to them and they were not responsive.

Jose is in the process of litigation against Woodhull on behalf of his children.

So it's a very American way of doing things that when you are harmed this way by a system that is so much bigger than just one bad doctor, it also falls on the person who's been victimized to go through a grueling, expensive, sometimes traumatizing, dehumanizing legal process.

The way our system is set up, it's on you to sue.

And suing a public hospital in New York City is a very narrow time window of the statute of limitations.

But also, the potential settlement in these cases is very limited.

Jose has been advocating for the Grieving Families Act because currently, the way that damages are calculated does not include emotional distress.

It only includes lost earnings.

And so somebody like Christine, who was in college, who had just completed her degree, who worked at a supermarket and a dollar store while putting herself through college, would be valued very little because emotional distress would not be taken into account.

And it's only through the power of insurance companies and doctors' associations that that has not become law in New York State to take into account damages because it's passed the legislature numerous times and it's been vetoed by Kathy Hochul because she said it would cost too much for hospitals.