A Seventy-year-old Grandmother, Great Grandmother, and Mother in Florida spent a day in jail in Duval County, Florida. What was her ‘crime’? She refused to leave the bedside of her daughter, stricken non-verbal and partially paralyzed by a stroke and recovering from brain surgery. She was there at Doctors’ orders to calm her terrified and disoriented daughter and interpret her needs to the staff in the way only a mother can. But that wasn’t good enough for hospital leaders at UF Health North in Jacksonville, they ordered Lynn Savage, herself a former Sheriff’s Deputy from Stark County, Ohio, removed from the hospital by force… due to COVID19 restrictions on visiting hours.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/SOZ6QH5CGFHIRMDI6KM2RSEPEY.jpg)
Savage told the press that she completely understood the consequences of her actions.
“I stand by my actions 100 percent. I am not sorry that I made them take me out of there in handcuffs,”
“I could not in good conscience and good heart leave her bedside not knowing how she was going to make it through the night voluntarily.”
Savage told that she had been by her daughter’s side since 6:30 AM and that her daughter’s Doctor asked her to come into the ICU in an effort to calm her down in recovery.
“As soon as I approached the bedside, she was fine. With all these people talking and all these things going on and she doesn’t understand it and not being able to talk, she just was frantic.”
Savage remained until nurses told her that she couldn’t stay any longer.
“The nurse said that the visiting hours were over at seven and I had to leave and I said ‘I’m not going to leave. I want to stay here with my daughter. Can you call the doctor because the doctor is the one that wanted me here with her?’ And she said no that they couldn’t do that that COVID rules said that visiting hours were over at seven,”
It was at that point that hospital security became involved, with the nursing staff refusing to contact the Doctor, and Lynn refusing to leave, something had to give.
A Mother Gets Cuffs For Her Principles.
ActionNews Ajax reported that according to the JSO arrest report, “security officers spent a couple of hours pleading for the suspect, Ms. Lynn Savage, to leave.”
Lynn explained,
“The sheriff’s office came up. They were also very polite. They kept trying to get me to leave and I said I’m not leaving; I’m not going to leave my daughter’s side.”
When the Sherriffs arrived they took Savage into custody and explained that she was trespassed from the hospital for one year. According to the Sheriff’s report, “She stated she understood but would have to be removed by force. Ms. Savage was cooperative, and I placed her under arrest. Once escorted outside the hospital, I pleaded for Ms. Savage to come to reason, leave and return in the morning when visitation opened at 0900 hours. She refused for the principle that if something happens to her daughter Amber, she was forced to leave her side. Ms. Savage understands the trespass is good for one year.”
Fmr. Deputy Lynn Savage spent 24 hours in lockup and was forbidden to return to her daughters side… due to COVID19 restrictions. “Not an experience that I would ever want to do again for the rest of my life not ever. It was horrible. It was filthy, it was more like an insane asylum with the women screaming and hollering and banging on bars and banging on walls. It was just terrifying, but I would rather be there than know that I had walked away from my daughter.”
Her daughter is likely to make it, but is still in recovery, without the benefit of her mother at her side. Savage’s hearing is on October 20th. If there is any justice in the state of Florida, then either a judge or Gov. DeSantis will intervene.
