A wrongful death in the Black and brown community is a tragedy that creates a ripple effect, affecting loved ones and the community at large. The Grieving Families Act would reform New York’s 200-year-old discriminatory tort laws to allow financial compensation for emotional grief and anguish in wrongful death cases.
Bruce McIntyre, 32, is just one of the family members dedicated to getting this bill passed by Governor Kathy Hochul. He is the founder of SaveARose Foundation and was featured in the award-winning documentary “Aftershock” on Hulu after Amber Rose Isaac, his 26-year-old fiancée and the mother of his son, inexplicably died after an emergency C-section was performed on her.
“Amber was a phenomenal woman—that’s the best way to describe her. She was someone her peers looked up to. Very intelligent and elegant,” said McIntyre.
Isaac wanted to be an art therapist for youth, he said, and was an educator in Harlem. She found out she was pregnant on September 27, 2019. She complained about months of neglect during her pregnancy at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, which coincided with the beginnings of the COVID pandemic. By December 2019, her blood platelet levels were dropping drastically enough to warrant her being considered a high-risk pregnancy.
McIntyre said that Isaac’s obstetrician-gynecologist (ob-gyn) was very off-putting once Isaac became pregnant and treated her differently to the point of ignoring her pain. Her doctor did not follow up with tests or blood work, and continued to deny Isaac’s requests for in-person visits or time off from work. “We weren’t getting clear answers from the ob-gyn. All of [Amber’s] concerns were always being taken lightly and brushed off. She was always being told that these were regular pregnancy symptoms,” said McIntyre.
Weary of the hospital and doctor, the frustrated family sought out a midwife instead. A midwife is a “trained health professional” who can deliver babies at birthing centers or at home. The tradition of Black midwifery in the U.S. is deeply rooted in systematic and racist practices, but is viewed as a viable and holistic solution to alarmingly high Black maternal death rates in the U.S. In New York City, Black pregnant women are far more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than their white counterparts in wrongful death cases.
In preparation for a home birth, Nubia Martin, president and founder of Birth From the Earth Inc, ran standard checks to make sure that Isaac was in full health. She discovered that Isaac’s blood platelets were low, which meant that they hadn’t been clotting properly, and doctors should have done tests for liver enzymes to rule out severe complications like Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, and Low Platelets (HELLP) syndrome. She immediately contacted the family and told them about the missed condition.
“I’m a mother of five,” said Martin. “I became a midwife because of the way that I was treated in the hospital—the immediate separation and the behavior displayed to me, and just knowing that the hospital is a place to make money. They try to push inductions and C-sections on Black women [that are] not medically indicated.”
Martin said these unnecessary C-sections often result in infections or injuries, but are preferred by ob-gyns because they can be scheduled, are quick, and generate reimbursements.
Martin didn’t have further direct contact with Isaac because she was no longer a good candidate for home birth. At this point, it was April 2020 and Isaac was supposed to be due May 30, at the height of the pandemic. On April 18, Isaac entered the hospital where her mother worked as an administrator. She was still afraid, and because of social distancing rules, had to be alone.
When McIntyre attempted to join Isaac at the hospital, “Security comes up to me, they call me out by name disrespectfully, and they call me Mr. Baby Daddy, and they tell me to calm down,” he said. “I wasn’t making a scene. I just wanted to make sure she got the care that she needs.”
By April 20, it was confirmed that Isaac had HELLP syndrome. The hospital decided to induce labor early and do an unplanned emergency C-section without a blood transfusion, which resulted in severe blood loss. McIntyre said that from where he was quarantined, he saw doctors rushing blood to her room.
He learned from a nurse that since they didn’t know where the bleeding was coming from and that doctors also performed an emergency and unnecessary hysterectomy on Isaac. Then they cut her open a third time, he said, to massage her heart.
Isaac died. McIntyre’s son, Elias, survived.
“I wasn’t able to hug or kiss Amber goodbye,” said McIntyre. “The last words that we were saying to each other was that we were going home. That’s all she kept repeating to herself: ‘The three of us are going home.’”
McIntyre began his advocacy work in the course of raising funds for Isaac’s funeral and demanding the city not bury her with COVID victims in a mass grave at Hart Island. He experienced discrimination in family courts as a single Black father trying to get custody of his son and get his name on the child’s birth certificate. He also learned that there was little support for families who lose loved ones when it came to finances as well as mental healthcare.
“New York’s backward wrongful death laws, crafted in 1847, are exceedingly discriminatory and racist by design,” said Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, sponsor of the Grieving Families Act.
The wrongful death law excludes close family members from receiving any money from wrongful death suits. Lawyer advocates for a change in the law argue that this reflects an “outdated belief” that falls most harshly on children, seniors, and people of color and women who have significantly less sustainable income.
“Actuarial tables are used by big insurance companies to price the cost of life, and for people of color and women, the calculation pales in comparison to white and male victims. It is our job as legislators to protect all victims’ families in their worst days, and to reform this deeply prejudicial system,” said Hoylman-Sigal.
Hoylman-Sigal said the use of race and gender in pricing the value of a life is an “atrocious” practice that must stop.
The bill passed in the state senate and assembly in 2022. The updated bill is awaiting Hochul’s signature, although she already vetoed a previous bill version.
According to her office, Hochul “will review this legislation.”
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.