Editor’s note: Video may be upsetting or disturbing to some viewers.
YouTube and Vimeo censored a video posted by a pro-life group that showed never-before-seen footage of two premature infants being denied care at an Ohio hospital.
The video showed the babies’ mother, Amanda Finnefrock, in the delivery room at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, moments after her 22-week-old infants were declared dead.
Finnefrock said no hospital staff were present as her first son, Emery, was delivered. He lived for only 45 minutes and did not receive treatment, she said.
Her second son, Elliot, lived for only two and a half hours. The doctors allegedly told Finnefrock that it would be “inhumane” to try to save either child.
Through tears, Finnefrock can be heard in a video pleading, “You guys are gonna save him, right? Promise me they’re gonna save him… look at him. Please save him!”
Created Equal, a pro-life group, shared the video on its channels, but YouTube removed it shortly thereafter, claiming that the video had “violated community standards” without specifying which standard had been violated.
Vimeo also removed the video and suspended the group’s account, stating, “You cannot upload videos are hateful, defamatory, or discriminatory,” according to The Federalist.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services faulted the hospital for failing “to ensure medical screening examinations required by EMTALA were performed for twins born prematurely (at 22 weeks gestation) who were not sent to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit and died within several hours after delivery.”
HHS said last month that it planned to investigate the matter.
“Though I repeatedly asked staff to help or assess my babies, I was told they were born too young. But there is no documentation to prove they were born too young,” Finnefrock said in a statement.
“In fact, I had been told previously they would not help if the babies were born before 22 weeks and [five] days,” she continued. “Documentation shows I was admitted at 22 weeks [two] days and the babies born at 22 weeks [five] days. Nevertheless, when I begged for help, they refused. I was discharged with instructions for care after stillbirth. But Emery and Elliot were not stillborn. They were born alive and died as Riverside Methodist Hospital staff denied my pleas for help.”
