Kenneth Ray Couch, 35,has been accused of a curious crime where he allegedly faked a heart attack to get away from a crime scene and then went straight to the hospital cafeteria to grab a bite to eat.
Deputies responded to a burglary call and then found out that Couch was picked up by ambulance at a business nearby and taken away in a hospital. When the ambulance arrived, however, Couch got and strolled into the cafeteria. Police later arrested him there.
He was charged with the burglary as well as falsely reporting an incident. He also was wanted on a bench warrant out of Caldwell County for failure to appear on two counts of theft by deception for cold checks.
That is quite a pile of charges and, if he was not experiencing angina before, he may now.
He hasn’t gotten the bill yet for his ride. However, he may have a reasonable claim for the ride. Anxiety attack, angina, etc. He just got better. People check themselves out of the hospital against doctor’s advice all the time. This time he didn’t even bother to get the advice. 😉
PC Schulte,
It didn’t look like he was checked in the hospital when he took off.
It sounds like the went straight from the ambulance to the hospital cafeteria.
The paramedics were probably in contact with the hospital’s ER while they were in transit.
Normally, they escort the patient in to the ER area, but it sounds like he just walked or ran away from the paramedics before he even entered the ER.
On the issue of AMA, leaving Against Medical Advice, it seems to happen in the case of 1 or 2 % of hospital patient; given the number of hospital admissions, that turns out to be a substantial number.
If a patient hasn’t seen a doctor in a day or so, doesn’t know what the plan is, or long they plan on keeping him, he may just say screw it and walk out.
If no doctors have “advised” the patient what the hell is going on, it’s kind of hard to see how the patient is leaving AMA in the absence of that advice.
There are a variety of circumstances that might lead a patient to “just walk out”, without “officially” being discharged.
If a patient is left in the dark, and there is insufficient or non-existent communication with the patient, there may be an unexpected reaction or departure by the patient.
I’m not sure of the exact medical terminology in those kinds of cases.
I believe the physicians’ manual calls it “going ape-sh**.
Surprisingly, there wasn’t a charge for theft of services for the ambulance call.
nor for his visit to the cafeteria! lol