FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — When Patrick Hollon started feeling dizzy and sick during a night shift at a Frankfort plastics plant, his co-workers called an ambulance for a potential heat stroke.
It was June 16, a 94-degree day during a summer heatwave.
“I remember having this horrible headache,” Hollon said.
When Hollon, now 27, was taken to Frankfort Regional Medical Center, he was given Narcan and treated for dehydration and a drug overdose. He was not treated at the hospital for heat stroke, according to a lawsuit filed by Hollon and his family. The lawsuit was filed against the Frankfort Police Department, multiple employees of Frankfort Regional Medical Center and the police department, and HCA Healthcare, which operates the hospital.
After being treated with Narcan at Frankfort Regional, Hollon was still unresponsive and unable to speak coherently. But instead of continuing to treat him, hospital staff called police because he wouldn’t leave the premises, according to the lawsuit.
Body camera footage from the responding Frankfort police officers was provided to LEX 18 by Hollon’s attorney, Kamp Purdy. In the footage, nurses can be heard saying that Hollon had been discharged from the hospital, but wouldn’t wake up.
The footage shows police trying to get Hollon to speak to them, and at some point, a hospital employee appears to try to shake him awake. The hospital employees can also be heard saying that the Narcan worked, but that Hollon had then started “flailing around and trying to get away from us” before police arrived.
Hollon, a Marine veteran, said he’s never taken illegal drugs and had never been arrested before the incident at the hospital. He said he’d not taken any drugs the night of the incident.
“To me, it seemed like they might have just looked at me and been like, ‘he’s a druggie.’ I think it was a quick decision on their part,” Hollon said. “They didn’t do anything to really figure out if I was actually on something.”
In the body camera footage from that night, an officer can be heard asking Hollon to leave the hospital, counting down from five, and then stating “trespassing” as Hollon continued to sit in an unresponsive state.
The hospital employees medically cleared Hollon to be taken to the jail, they can be heard saying in the footage.
Hollon was charged with third-degree criminal trespassing, according to court records. Hollon can be seen on the body camera footage speaking incoherently as police struggled to lift him into the police wagon.
Hollon was taken to the jail, where he stayed for about 12 hours before being released, Purdy said.
When he left the jail, Hollon’s father took him to Georgetown Community Hospital, which quickly diagnosed him as suffering from a heat stroke and sent him to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital for “a higher level of care,” according to the lawsuit and medical records provided to LEX 18.
Hollon said he has no memory of what happened between him leaving his workplace in an ambulance and regaining consciousness at UK Hospital.
He later watched the body camera footage of what happened at Frankfort Regional Medical Center.
“Extreme anger,” Hollon said of how he felt watching the video. “After the fact, I started becoming sad that I can’t even trust these professionals to help someone that’s not able to speak. Not able to do really anything.”
Hollon had to be intubated during his several-day stay at UK hospital, according to the lawsuit and medical records.
As Hollon was taken from Franklin Regional Medical Center, to the police wagon, to the jail, Purdy said that he believes there was some complacency.
“That’s the system’s failure right there,” Purdy said. “There’s got to be double checks on people, whether they hold a license, a badge or a set of keys to open a jail door.”
LEX 18 started asking Frankfort Regional Medical Center questions last week about what happened to Hollon.
“We terminated the employees involved and we apologize for the way Mr. Hollon was treated,” the hospital said in a statement Monday. “We have provided additional training for our staff to help ensure this does not happen again. We are genuinely sorry this happened, and we are glad to hear he is doing well.”
A hearing date for the lawsuit filed by Hollon and his family hasn’t been set yet, and neither the hospital nor the police department have filed answers to the allegations in the case, according to court records.
Meanwhile, the trespassing charge against Hollon is still active. He has a pretrial hearing in that case on Oct. 4, according to court records.
