Woman wearing only hospital gown 'steals ambulance and goes on joyride'
A woman dressed in a hospital gown has been arrested by police after allegedly stealing an ambulance and going on a frantic joyride.
Marquisa Allen, 25, was sitting on a bench outside the HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital in her hospital gown when she noticed paramedics were inside the hospital dropping off a patient, leaving the ambulance unattended. According to police, she quickly pounced at the opportunity and, while in her hospital gown, allegedly stole the ambulance and drove out of the car park.
Officers said the patient was unaware of the GPS tracker inside the ambulance which allowed police to locate her location. The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) located the stolen ambulance stuck in traffic not far from the hospital. Cops closed in on the runaway driver when she scampered out of the ambulance and began to run away. However, after a short pursuit, she was located and arrested by police.
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She was quickly tracked down by cops (Port St. Lucie Police Department)The suspect faces charges of giving false information to police, driving while her licence was suspended, and resisting without violence. Additional charges from PSLPD will be forthcoming, according to police.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
The incident comes weeks after a psychiatrist was accused of locking patients in hospital units as part of an $800,000 scam, according to a lawsuit. Dr Brian Hyatt, 50, from Arkansas, is accused of holding at least 26 victims in his unit at Northwest Medical Centre - with one former patient claiming they were grabbed and held for five days against their will.
Under Arkansas law, mental health patients can be held against their will for 72 hours if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others. But in order to keep patients longer, a medical provider must file a court petition which has the judge's consent. However, in at least two cases, a patient was only released from Dr Hyatt's care after a sheriff's duty showed up with a court order.
The ambulance was left unattended (Port St. Lucie Police Department)The Arkansas Attorney General's office claims Dr Hyatt ran an insurance scam to treat patients he rarely visited and then charged the "highest severity code on every patient" to take home hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Northwest Medical Centre also could not provide sufficient documentation that justified the hospitalisation of 246 patients. Aaron Cash, a lawyer representing several of Dr Hyatt's former patients, said: "I think that they were running a scheme to hold people as long as possible, to bill their insurance as long as possible before kicking them out the door, and then filling the bed with someone else."
He denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged. However, he has since resigned from his position as chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board and was "abruptly terminated" from his position at the hospital.
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