How deep-rooted medical bias creates deadly consequences for addiction patients

In bodycam footage released by the Milwaukie Police Department, 26-year-old Jean Descamps can be seen in a hospital bed at the Providence Milwaukie Hospital emergency room in Milwaukie, Ore., in December 2023. Soon after he was discharged by the hospital, Descamps died from drugs already in his system. Milwaukie Police Department/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

On a cold December night in 2023, the staff at Providence Milwaukie Hospital in Milwaukie, Ore., called local police. They wanted help getting one of their patients, a 26-year-old man named Jean Descamps, out of the emergency room.

"He's been evaluated medically. There's no medical problems for him," a member of the hospital team, who NPR has not been able to identify, told police. The moment was captured on an officer's body camera.

Records show the hospital's medical staff believed Descamps — emaciated, covered in feces, and often unresponsive — was experiencing symptoms of chronic street drug use, a leading cause of death for young Americans.

After Descamps arrived in an ambulance earlier that day, hospital staff cleaned him up and administered naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses. But now they wanted him gone. "He's not thriving chronically, but there's no medical reason for him to be here anymore," one hospital staffer can be heard saying.

Video released by the Milwaukie Police Department shows Descamps sprawled in a hospital bed, his body limp, moaning and drooling, while medical staff stood nearby. After determining Descamps was too unwell to spend the night in jail, police officers challenged the hospital's decision to discharge him.

"He can't be on his own," one officer said. "Why is he being released? We have no place to take him."

"A bus station is fine," a hospital worker replied. Another member of the hospital staff told police Descamps was faking the severity of his illness: "It's not really a medical problem, it's malingering."