April 26, 2026

Left Fighting for Air at Virtua Mount Holly Hospital: Perdisha “Para” Champion

Left Fighting for Air at Virtua Mount Holly Hospital: Perdisha “Para” Champion
Left Fighting for Air at Virtua Mount Holly Hospital: Perdisha “Para” Champion
No Tears For Black Girls
Left Fighting for Air at Virtua Mount Holly Hospital: Perdisha “Para” Champion

In this episode of No Tears For Black Girls: The Cases They Ignored, we examine the death of twenty-eight-year-old Perdisha “Para” Champion and the questions her family says still remain about what happened inside Virtua Mount Holly Hospital in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Through a direct interview with Para’s mother, Sophia Shannon, this episode follows the final hours before her daughter’s death and the anguish that followed. Sophia says she watched Para experience severe medical distress during a night that should have ended in care, not loss.

What emerges is not only a mother’s grief, but a family’s demand for answers. Sophia does not speak like someone searching for closure. She speaks like a mother who believes her daughter was failed. As this episode traces the timeline she shared, it also steps into a larger and more painful conversation about medical accountability, delayed response, unequal treatment, and the mistrust many Black families already carry into hospital spaces. This is the story of Perdisha “Para” Champion, the mother who refuses to let her name disappear, and the questions that still refuse to go away.

If you want a shorter version for platforms with tighter space, use this: In this episode of No Tears For Black Girls: The Cases They Ignored, host Samantha Paul examines the death of twenty-eight-year-old Perdisha “Para” Champion and the questions her family says remain about what happened inside Virtua Mount Holly Hospital in New Jersey. Based on a direct interview with Para’s mother, Sophia Shannon, this episode explores Para’s final hours, a family’s demand for answers, and the larger issues of medical accountability and Black medical mistrust.

Related reading: Death Apnea, a No Tears For Black Girls: Case Files novel by J.C. Reedburg, explores medical racism, hospital erasure, and what happens when Black women are treated as disposable inside systems that were supposed to protect them.

CREDITS:

Created, Written, & Produced by John Reedburg

Hosted & Narrated by Samantha Paul

Production Company: John Reedburg Media

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

https://www.youtube.com/@NoTearsForBlacksGirls

facebook.com/notearsforblackgirls

instagram.com/notearsforblackgirls

tiktok.com/@notearsforblackgirls

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Once alone in these hospitals
because they don't give a fuck

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about us black people.
They don't care about us.

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They'd rather sit there and let
us die so they can take out

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orchids.
You understand what I'm saying?

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My baby fought and they gave up
on her.

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She still had 50% heart rate and
they said they said enough.

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We ain't.
We can't do no more.

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She had 50% heart rate.
They were supposed to still keep

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going.
So just advocate for your loved

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ones, be there for them, love on
them for heart.

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I missed my baby because she was
a fighter.

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She was my writer.
And now she's gone.

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I'm going to miss her
everything, but I'm going to

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fight for her.
Already got a lawyer and I'm

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telling you I'm going to make
them pay.

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I'm going to make them pay.
So y'all just please scream Pat.

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You should name all over, all
over the place, all over the

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Internet because she deserves to
still be here with us.

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They took her life.
So I just wanted to tell y'all

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that story and I just want
everybody to scream at at 123

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para.
A grieving mother is standing

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outside Virtua Mount Holly
Hospital in Mount Holly, NJ Not

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at home, not in private.
Not whispering through shock.

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Standing in front of the
building itself.

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Standing in front of the place
where she says her daughter was

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failed.
And she is saying something so

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painful, so public and so
serious that it forces a

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question before this story has
even properly begun.

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Why is Sophia Shannon back here?
Why is she standing outside this

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hospital saying this?
What happened inside Virtua

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Mount Holly that turned grief
into accusation?

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Imagine this.
It is late.

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Not the kind of late that feels
dangerous.

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Not the kind of late that tells
you your life is about to split

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in two.
Just late.

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The television is on.
The house has settled into

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itself, the kind of ordinary
night that only becomes sacred

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after it is gone.
You are sitting with your

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daughter, watching TV, talking
the way mothers and daughters

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talk when there is no audience,
no ceremony, no warning, no sign

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that before the sun comes up you
will be standing inside a

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hospital trying to make people
understand that your child is

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dying.
Then she tells you her stomach

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hurts.
At first it sounds small,

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manageable, the kind of thing
people say at home all the time.

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Maybe she needs to use the
bathroom.

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Maybe it passes.
Maybe by morning she will be

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fine.
So you do what mothers do.

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You watch, you listen, you wait,
You do not panic too early, not

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yet, not while there is still
room to believe this night will

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stay ordinary.
For a moment, it even seems like

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maybe it will.
Then she starts coughing and

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what comes up has blood in it.
That is the moment the room

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changes.
That is the moment the night

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changes.
That is the moment your body

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knows.
Before your mouth can say it out

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loud, something is wrong.
You tell your daughter she needs

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to go to the hospital, but she
does not want to go.

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Not because she is reckless, not
because she does not understand

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her own body, but because she
has been to hospitals before.

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Because she already knows what
it feels like to walk into a

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medical space needing help and
still feel judged.

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Still feel looked at sideways,
still feel like people are

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deciding who you are before they
decide what is wrong with you.

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Because for some black women,
the fear is never just the

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illness.
The fear is also the way you may

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be treated while you are trying
to survive it.

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So you wait a little longer.
You keep watching her.

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You keep hoping.
You keep trying to believe this

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moment might pass.
Then she says something that

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strips the room of all denial.
She is having trouble breathing

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now.
There is no more.

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Maybe no more talking yourself
out of fear.

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No more wait and see.
It is around 2:00 in the

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morning.
You call 911 when emergency

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responders arrive.
Her breathing is shallow.

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You can hear the labor in it.
You can hear the strain in it.

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Every breath sounds like work.
Every inhale sounds like a body

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trying to stay ahead of
something it is already losing

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ground to.
Before she leaves, she says she

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needs to use the bathroom.
There is blood there too.

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You tell them.
You tell the people who are now

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responsible for your daughter's
life what you saw.

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Then you ask the question
families ask when they still

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believe there is time.
Where are you taking her?

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You know where her doctors are.
You know where her records are,

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you know which hospital feels
safer in your spirit.

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But you are told they want to
take her somewhere local.

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So now your daughter is in an
ambulance and you are doing what

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mothers do when fear gets too
big to hold properly.

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You are watching, listening,
praying, trying not to let your

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panic become hers.
Then you get to the hospital and

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instead of movement, there is
waiting.

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Instead of urgency, there is
distance.

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Instead of being right there
with your daughter, you are told

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to sit in the waiting room and
time starts doing something

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cruel.
It stretches, It hardens.

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It turns every minute into a
question.

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What is happening back there?
Who is watching her?

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Is somebody seeing what you saw?
Is somebody moving fast enough?

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By the time they bring you back,
hours have passed.

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Your daughter has soiled
herself.

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Her breathing is worse, and you
are looking at the room, looking

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at her, looking at the staff,
trying to understand how

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somebody who came in struggling
for air still looks like

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somebody fighting to survive.
Then eventually the breathing

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machine comes, the mask, the
intervention that in your mind

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should have already been there.
It goes on, and almost

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immediately your daughter starts
pulling at it, trying to tug it

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away, trying to tell them
something is wrong, trying to

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tell you something is wrong.
And then she says the words that

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will live in your body forever.
Mom, this is way too much air.

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That is the last thing she says.
Then the numbers start falling.

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Her heart rate drops.
People start moving.

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Not in the order you think they
should, not in the speed you

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think they should.
Hands are on her.

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Restraints go on her arms.
You are screaming.

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You are asking why they are not
doing more, why they are not

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doing it now, why your
daughter's body is collapsing in

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front of you while you are still
trying to make somebody

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understand that this is not just
another patient, this is your

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child.
Then she codes, then again, then

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again, then again, and somewhere
between the machines, the

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shouting, the medical language
and the terror, a mother begins

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to understand that her daughter
may be dying inside the very

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place that was supposed to save
her.

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That mother is Sophia Shannon.
Her daughter was Perdisha, Para

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Champion, affectionately known
by her parents and friends as

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Para.
This is no tears for black

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girls.
The cases they ignored.

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I'm Samantha Paul.
Tonight we are not just looking

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at the death of a 28 year old
black mother.

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We are looking at what her
mother says happened inside

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Virtua Mount Holly Hospital.
We are looking at the decisions,

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the delays, the treatment, the
moment Sophia says should have

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gone differently.
And we are looking at why.

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This story is landing inside a
much bigger conversation about

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bedside neglect, patient
treatment, medical

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discrimination, and the deep
mistrust so many Black families

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already carry when they walk
into spaces like this.

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What you are about to hear is
based on public records, public

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family statements and a direct
interview.

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Our show's investigator and
producer JC Reedberg conducted

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with Sophia Shannon about what
happened to her daughter.

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No Tears for Black Girls reached
out to Virtua Mount Holly

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Hospital regarding Perdisha
Champion, the family's

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allegations and concerns about
the care she received.

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By the time of this recording,
the hospital had not responded.

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And that matters because Sophia
is not speaking like a mother

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who is confused about what
happened.

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She is speaking like a mother
who believes her daughter was

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failed.
And before we go deeper into the

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hospital room, before we examine
the final hours and before we

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look at what people have been
saying publicly about Virtua

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Mount Holly, we need to
understand who Para was.

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Because before she became a
case, before she became an

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allegation, before her mother
came back to this hospital

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demanding answers, Perdisha Para
Champion was a daughter, a

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mother and a woman her family
loved fiercely.

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And according to Sophia Shannon,
a woman who was still trying to

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live, Sophia describes her
daughter as beautiful inside and

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out.
Not just pretty, not just

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stylish.
Beautiful in the way she loved

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people, beautiful in the way she
showed up, beautiful in the way

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she carried herself through
pain.

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She says Para loved hard.
If you were her friend, she

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would go to bat for you.
If you were down, she would make

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room for you if you needed help.
She was the kind of person who

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did not just say she cared, she
acted like it.

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And those details matter,
because too often black women

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are only described after
something terrible has already

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happened to them.
Only described once they are

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gone.
Only described once the world

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has to be convinced their life
mattered.

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But before she became a hospital
allegation.

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Before she became a death
certificate, before she became a

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mother, standing outside a
building begging for answers,

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Perdisha Para Champion was a
full person.

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She was joy, she was energy, she
was style.

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She was somebody whose presence,
according to Sophia, could be

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felt the moment she entered a
room.

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Sophia says her daughter had a
gift for reading people, reading

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their spirit, reading their
energy, reading whether somebody

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was genuine or not.
And that kind of instinct

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usually comes from surviving
enough to know what people feel

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like before they fully reveal
themselves.

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Sophia says.
Para loved to dance, loved to

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laugh, loved to have a good
time.

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She says her daughter did not
need anything extra to become

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the life of the room she already
was.

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She loved looking good, hair
done, nails done, fresh outfits,

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fresh sneakers, the newest
Jordans.

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Again, those details matter
because those are the details of

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a living woman, the details of
taste, the details of selfhood,

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the details that keep a person
from being flattened into

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tragedy.
Sophia says Para was a great

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daughter, a great sister, a
great aunt, a hard worker before

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her health began taking more
from her.

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But above all, she was Ava's
mother.

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And when Sophia talks about that
part of her daughter, you can

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hear the story settle into its
deepest truth.

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Because Ava was not a side note
in Para's life.

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00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:22,120
Ava was the center.
Sophia says Para made sure Ava

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had what she needed.
Not just clothes, not just food,

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not just the visible things
people can point to and tally

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up.
She made sure her daughter felt

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loved.
If Ava liked art, Para got her

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art supplies, sketchbooks,
colored pencils, pens, things

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that fed her imagination.
She took her to the park.

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She bought her little gifts.
She spent time with her.

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She paid attention.
And Sophia says her daughter

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would give her last for Ava.
That sentence tells you almost

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everything you need to know.
She would give her last for Ava.

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That is not poetic language.
That is not a mother dressing

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00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:04,840
grief up to make it sound
beautiful.

216
00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:08,320
That is a mother telling you
exactly what kind of woman her

217
00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:11,240
daughter was.
A woman who was living for her

218
00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:14,040
child.
A woman who still had future in

219
00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:17,120
her mind.
A woman who still expected to be

220
00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:19,720
here.
And that is what makes the next

221
00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:22,800
part so important.
Because if you only hear the

222
00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:26,560
word lupus, you may start making
peace too early with an ending

223
00:13:26,560 --> 00:13:30,760
Sophia does not accept.
Public memorial pages and the

224
00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:33,760
family fundraiser say Para had
been battling lupus.

225
00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:37,640
That part is true.
But Sophia says that phrase by

226
00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:41,720
itself is not enough.
Because in her view, Para was

227
00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:44,760
not simply declining.
She was trying to recover,

228
00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:49,720
trying to get stronger, trying
to get back to herself, trying

229
00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:52,360
to stay here.
Sophia says her daughter had

230
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,840
been gaining weight back,
getting stronger, wanting to go

231
00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:00,640
outside again, wanting to do
more, wanting to be more like

232
00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:04,440
herself again.
That matters because too many

233
00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:08,080
people hear chronic illness and
quietly start rewriting the

234
00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,080
story backward.
They start treating the ending

235
00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,920
like it was already written,
like any loss after that becomes

236
00:14:14,920 --> 00:14:18,040
inevitable.
Sophia does not believe that.

237
00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:22,120
She says Para was not giving up.
She says Para was trying to

238
00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:25,400
live, and she gives details that
make that plain.

239
00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:29,200
She says her daughter loved to
cook, really cook.

240
00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:33,640
Not just enough to fix something
quick, not just enough to get

241
00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:37,000
through the day.
Cook with feeling, Cook with

242
00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:39,600
skill.
Cook the kind of food people

243
00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:43,480
remember.
And according to Sophia, even

244
00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:47,720
when Para was in a wheelchair,
she was still cooking, still

245
00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:52,160
making meals, still doing what
she loved, still trying to keep

246
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,680
some sense of normal life alive
inside a body that had already

247
00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:59,560
put her through too much.
Then Sophia shares something

248
00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:02,800
that changes the way you hear
every single part of what comes

249
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:05,640
next.
She says that about a month

250
00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:09,440
before the final night of her
daughter's life, Para had all 5

251
00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,960
toes amputated from 1 foot
because of circulation issues.

252
00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:18,800
Just sit with that for a second.
A young woman, a mother, already

253
00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:23,440
living with lupus, already
carrying pain, already trying to

254
00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:27,800
recover, and now recovering from
losing all 5 toes on one foot.

255
00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:32,080
According to Sophia, what first
looked like one thing became

256
00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:35,920
much worse.
The condition worsened, the toes

257
00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:40,520
turned black, deteriorated, and
eventually had to be removed.

258
00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:44,960
So when Sophia describes her
daughter as a fighter, she is

259
00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,600
not using that word loosely.
She means her daughter had

260
00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,880
already been through a level of
pain and medical trauma that

261
00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:55,280
would have broken a lot of
people physically, mentally,

262
00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:59,640
spiritually.
And still, in Sophia's telling,

263
00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:01,880
Para was trying to come back
from it.

264
00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:06,880
Still trying to heal, still
trying to get stronger, still

265
00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:11,480
trying to be here for Ava, still
trying to remain in her own

266
00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:14,360
life.
That is the woman Sophia says

267
00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:16,280
went into Virtua Mount Holly
Hospital.

268
00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:19,960
Not a woman her family had
already begun preparing to lose.

269
00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:23,560
Not a woman already framed in
their minds as slipping away.

270
00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,720
A woman in recovery.
A woman still trying.

271
00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:32,120
A woman still reaching for life.
And Sophia says her daughter's

272
00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:35,040
hopes were not abstract.
They were specific.

273
00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:39,680
She wanted to be here for Ava.
She wanted to watch her grow up,

274
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:43,520
to watch her walk across that
stage, to watch her become a

275
00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:46,720
woman, to be there for the
milestones mothers are supposed

276
00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:50,280
to reach.
That was the future Sophia says

277
00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:52,680
was still alive in her
daughter's mind.

278
00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:56,120
That was the future she says her
daughter was still moving

279
00:16:56,120 --> 00:16:59,280
toward.
And that is why Sophia cannot

280
00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:02,920
accept what happened next as
simply nature taking its course.

281
00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:07,440
Because in her mind, Para did
not walk into that hospital as

282
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:09,480
somebody fading quietly out of
life.

283
00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:13,760
She walked into that hospital as
a young black mother, still

284
00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:16,880
trying to hold on to it.
Which brings us back to the

285
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:20,839
night everything changed.
According to Sophia, it started

286
00:17:20,839 --> 00:17:26,200
at home, quietly, ordinarily,
the way so many disasters do.

287
00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:29,840
She and Para were watching
television together the way they

288
00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:33,080
often did.
And sometime that night, Para

289
00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:36,680
said something that, at first,
did not sound like the beginning

290
00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,240
of a death story at all.
My stomach hurts.

291
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:45,240
At first, it sounded small,
manageable, the kind of thing

292
00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:48,040
people say at home every day and
live through every day.

293
00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:51,200
But this time, that was only the
beginning.

294
00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:55,120
According to what Sophia Shannon
told our show's investigator and

295
00:17:55,120 --> 00:17:59,480
producer JC Reedberg, the shift
from ordinary night to medical

296
00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:02,160
emergency did not happen all at
once.

297
00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:05,760
It happened in stages.
That is part of what makes this

298
00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:09,520
story so hard to hear, because
there was still time in the room

299
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:14,240
for hope, still time for denial,
still time to tell yourself,

300
00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:20,000
maybe this passes, maybe this is
1 bad moment, maybe by morning

301
00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:24,200
everything settles down.
Sophia says she and Para were at

302
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:27,080
home watching television
together, doing something

303
00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:31,840
simple, familiar and
unremarkable, the kind of night

304
00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:35,160
nobody records because nobody
thinks they are living inside

305
00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:38,520
the last normal hours they will
ever have with somebody they

306
00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:41,520
love.
Then Para says her stomach

307
00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:45,000
hurts.
At first, that does not sound

308
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,520
like catastrophe.
It sounds like discomfort, a

309
00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:52,360
bathroom problem, a passing
issue, something people say

310
00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:56,680
every day and survive every day.
Sophia says they thought maybe

311
00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:00,720
she needed to use the bathroom.
Maybe once she went, the pain

312
00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:03,600
would ease up.
Maybe that was all it was.

313
00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:08,080
And for a moment, there was
still room to believe that there

314
00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,400
was still room to think.
This night had not turned.

315
00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:16,360
Then Para started coughing, and
according to Sophia, what came

316
00:19:16,360 --> 00:19:20,160
up had blood in it.
Not a little fear, not a vague

317
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:24,840
feeling something was off blood.
That is the point where a

318
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,000
mother's instincts stop
negotiating.

319
00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:30,520
That is the point where the room
stops feeling ordinary.

320
00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,480
That is the point where your
body starts telling you the

321
00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:35,960
truth before your mind has fully
caught up to it.

322
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:40,520
Something is wrong.
Sophia says she told her

323
00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:44,000
daughter she needed to go to the
hospital, but Para did not want

324
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:46,240
to go.
And if you rush past that

325
00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:47,960
detail, you miss something
important.

326
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:51,440
She did not want to go.
Not because she did not

327
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:53,200
understand that something was
happening.

328
00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:56,480
Not because she was being
stubborn for no reason.

329
00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,680
According to Sophia, Para hated
going to the hospital because of

330
00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:05,360
how she had been treated before.
That sentence matters because

331
00:20:05,360 --> 00:20:08,760
now the emergency is unfolding
inside a much older story.

332
00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:14,160
A story about prior experiences,
prior mistreatment, prior

333
00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:18,080
humiliation, prior moments that
taught a young Black woman that

334
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:21,400
walking into a hospital did not
always mean walking into care.

335
00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,080
Sophia says her daughter had
been made to feel like less of a

336
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,840
person.
Made to feel like staff thought

337
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:30,440
she was there for pain medicine
instead of real pain.

338
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:33,960
Made to feel like her illness
was not being seen with the

339
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:37,800
seriousness it deserved.
And once you understand that,

340
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:43,200
the hesitation makes more sense.
Now the question is not just why

341
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,200
didn't she want to go?
The question becomes what has

342
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,640
happened to this woman in
medical spaces before that made

343
00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:52,560
her afraid to enter one while
actively getting sicker?

344
00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:54,720
That is a different kind of
detail.

345
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:59,120
That is the kind of detail that
tells you this story is not just

346
00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:02,080
about one night.
It is also about the memory a

347
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:05,840
body carries into crisis.
Sophia says they stayed home a

348
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:10,560
little longer not because the
danger had disappeared, because

349
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,200
there was still that terrible
little pocket of hope people

350
00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:16,560
cling to when they do not want
the night to become what it is

351
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:21,560
becoming.
You watch, you wait, you look

352
00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:25,200
again, you tell yourself maybe
the worst part has passed.

353
00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:29,440
Maybe the coughing stops, maybe
the blood does not come back,

354
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,000
maybe the body settles down.
But then the symptoms changed

355
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,480
again, and this time they
changed in a way that left no

356
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:41,600
room for interpretation.
Around 2:00 in the morning,

357
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:45,760
Sophia says Para told her she
was having trouble breathing.

358
00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,680
That is the moment the story
drops through the floor, because

359
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,160
stomach pain can still sound
explainable.

360
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:57,200
Even blood can send people into
denial for a few terrible

361
00:21:57,200 --> 00:21:59,920
minutes while they try to
rationalize what they are

362
00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:02,520
seeing.
But breathing is different.

363
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,800
Breathing forces the truth into
the room.

364
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:09,680
Once somebody says they cannot
breathe, the entire night

365
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:13,160
changes shape.
Sophia called 911.

366
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:17,360
And while families are waiting
for emergency responders, time

367
00:22:17,360 --> 00:22:20,520
does something cruel.
It starts stretching.

368
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:25,640
Every second becomes louder.
Every sound becomes suspicious.

369
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,840
Every look at the body becomes a
search for whether things are

370
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:34,040
getting worse.
Sophia says that by the time EMS

371
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:36,560
arrived, Para's breathing was
shallow.

372
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:41,640
You could hear the labor in it,
hear the body straining, hear

373
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:44,600
the effort it was taking just to
pull in air and push it back

374
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:46,960
out.
This was not a woman calmly

375
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:48,600
sitting through discomfort
anymore.

376
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:51,760
This was a woman in visible
distress.

377
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,640
And before they left for the
hospital, there was another

378
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:57,800
detail Sophia says she cannot
forget.

379
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:01,120
Para said she needed to use the
bathroom again.

380
00:23:01,120 --> 00:23:04,560
And according to Sophia, there
was blood in her stool.

381
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:07,560
Think about the amount of alarm
inside that moment.

382
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:13,200
A woman with stomach pain, then
coughing blood, now trouble

383
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:15,800
breathing, now blood in her
stool.

384
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:19,800
The body was sending signal
after signal after signal.

385
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:23,800
Sophia says she told EMS what
she had seen.

386
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:26,080
She says she made sure they
knew.

387
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,840
And then she asked the question
that now hangs over everything

388
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:32,800
that followed.
Where are you taking her?

389
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,080
That is not a small question in
this story.

390
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:39,120
That is one of the biggest
questions in this entire case

391
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:43,240
because according to Sophia,
many of Para's doctors were at

392
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,800
Cooper University Hospital.
That was the hospital she

393
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,280
trusted more.
That was the place where her

394
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,600
daughter's medical history was
already known.

395
00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:56,360
That was where in Sophia's mind,
the full complexity of her

396
00:23:56,360 --> 00:23:58,760
daughter's condition would have
been better understood.

397
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:04,400
But according to Sophia, EMS
told them Cooper was too far and

398
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:09,560
recommended something closer.
Virtua Mount Holly, Mount Holly,

399
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:14,320
NJ, A local hospital.
A practical choice, maybe on

400
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:18,280
paper, a short distance choice,
a convenience choice.

401
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,960
And for Sophia now, the most
haunting choice in the entire

402
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:25,640
story.
Because what sounds practical in

403
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,800
the moment can become unbearable
later, when the outcome is

404
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,680
death.
Sophia says plainly that if her

405
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,880
daughter had gone to Cooper, she
believes Para would still be

406
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:38,160
here.
That belief is not a side note.

407
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:40,920
It is one of the central pillars
of her grief.

408
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,160
It is one of the central pillars
of her accusation.

409
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:48,240
Because once the decision is
made, everything that follows is

410
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,240
attached to it.
The ambulance does not just

411
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,080
carry her daughter to a
hospital, It carries her

412
00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:57,880
daughter toward the place Sophia
now stands outside, accusing in

413
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,960
public.
That is why this part matters so

414
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,640
much.
The route matters, The

415
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,920
destination matters.
The hospital choice matters.

416
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:12,760
Sophia says Para was placed in
the ambulance and from there all

417
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:16,280
a mother can do is some
combination of watch, pray and

418
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:18,680
try not to let her own fear
swallow the room.

419
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,000
There's a special kind of
helplessness in following an

420
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:26,280
ambulance carrying your child.
You are moving physically, but

421
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:28,520
emotionally everything is
suspended.

422
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,640
You do not know how bad it is.
You do not know who is ready for

423
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:36,120
her when she arrives.
You do not know whether the

424
00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:39,840
urgency you are feeling in your
own body is going to be matched

425
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,680
on the other side of those
emergency room doors.

426
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,480
And in a story like this, those
questions start burning before

427
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,800
the hospital has even fully
entered the frame.

428
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:54,200
Because remember, this is not a
family walking into a system

429
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,280
they fully trust.
This is a family already

430
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:01,320
carrying prior experiences,
already carrying caution,

431
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,800
already carrying the memory of
being made to feel like their

432
00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:08,040
pain might be interpreted
through suspicion instead of

433
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:10,080
care.
That matters.

434
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,400
It matters because once they get
to Virtua Mount Holly, Sophia

435
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:16,920
says the feeling in the room
does not reassure her.

436
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:20,800
It does not calm her.
It does not tell her your

437
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,720
daughter is in the right hands
and people are moving with the

438
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:28,640
urgency this crisis requires.
It does the opposite and that is

439
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:31,760
where the story starts moving
from medical emergency into

440
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:36,040
allegation because according to
Sophia, when they arrived at

441
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,120
Virtua Mount Holly, she was not
brought straight back with her

442
00:26:39,120 --> 00:26:42,000
daughter.
She says she was told to wait in

443
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,480
the waiting room.
Just sit with that.

444
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:46,720
Your daughter is struggling to
breathe.

445
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,600
You have seen blood.
You have told responders what

446
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:52,920
happened.
You have followed her to the

447
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,160
hospital in terror, and now,
instead of being brought into a

448
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:01,280
scene of clear urgency, you are
separated from her and left to

449
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:03,960
wait.
That is where the emotional

450
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:07,400
violence of hospital time
begins, because waiting in a

451
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:12,040
moment like that is not passive.
Waiting becomes its own kind of

452
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:14,760
torment.
Waiting means you do not know

453
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,040
who is watching her.
You do not know what decisions

454
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,960
are being made.
You do not know whether what you

455
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:25,000
saw in the house is being
understood with the seriousness

456
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,240
it deserves.
You do not know whether the

457
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,440
people responsible for your
daughter's life are moving fast

458
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:33,600
enough.
And when the crisis is

459
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:38,560
breathing, every minute starts
to feel like a theft, Sophia

460
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:39,720
says.
Time passed.

461
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,880
Not 5 frantic blur like minutes
time.

462
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,680
Enough time for the waiting room
to become a place of dread.

463
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:50,840
Enough time for fear to sharpen
into anger.

464
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,720
Enough time for a mother to feel
like the obvious emergency in

465
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,560
her body is somehow not being
matched by the institution she

466
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:00,400
has just turned her daughter
over to.

467
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,880
By the time she was finally
brought back, Sophia says it was

468
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:09,680
around 3:30 in the morning.
And what she says she saw when

469
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,080
she got back there changed
everything.

470
00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:17,600
Para had soiled herself.
Her breathing was worse, and in

471
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:20,880
Sophia's eyes, the room did not
look like a room meeting a

472
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:23,200
respiratory emergency with
urgency.

473
00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:27,000
That is where the hospital
timeline begins to harden into

474
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,760
something much more serious.
Because from that point forward,

475
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:33,240
Sophia is no longer just
frightened.

476
00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:38,280
She is observing, recording,
judging the room against what

477
00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:40,720
she believes a room like that
should be doing.

478
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:45,440
And the deeper you go into what
she says happened next, the more

479
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,920
this story stops sounding like a
simple tragedy and starts

480
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:51,960
sounding like a mother building
the case for why she believes

481
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:53,920
Virtua Mount Holly failed her
daughter.

482
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,920
And according to Sophia, the
next thing she saw only made

483
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,720
that belief stronger.
Because what she says she walked

484
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:05,800
back into was not a room moving
with the speed of a respiratory

485
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,200
emergency.
It was a room that, in her eyes,

486
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:12,520
felt disconnected from the
danger unfolding right in front

487
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:14,960
of it.
Sophia says that when she was

488
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:17,880
finally brought back, Para had
soiled herself.

489
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:22,800
Her breathing was worse.
And that detail is not small.

490
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:27,600
It tells you how much time in
Sophia's mind had already passed

491
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,440
without the kind of intervention
she believed should have come

492
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:33,560
sooner.
It tells you the body was still

493
00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:37,120
working, still struggling, still
trying to hold on, while the

494
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,960
room around it did not yet look
to her like a room in full

495
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,320
emergency mode.
She says there was oxygen in her

496
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:46,840
daughter's nose, but that was
it.

497
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,320
Not the kind of escalation she
expected, not the kind of

498
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:53,680
response she believed the moment
called for.

499
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:56,880
Just oxygen in the nose while
her daughter was still

500
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,880
struggling to breathe.
Sophia says no antibiotics had

501
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:03,640
been started.
And she says that mattered to

502
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:07,800
her because by that point, in
her mind, the picture was

503
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,840
already serious enough that
waiting felt dangerous.

504
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:15,480
Then she notices something else.
Blood that had been drawn from

505
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,280
her daughter was sitting on a
table.

506
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:22,240
Cultures had been taken.
But according to Sophia, it

507
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,960
looked like those samples were
just sitting there, not moving,

508
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,960
not producing action, not
setting off the level of urgency

509
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:31,560
she believed should have
followed.

510
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,080
Now, somebody listening to this
might hear those details and

511
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:38,560
think maybe that is just what
chaos looks like in a hospital

512
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:40,920
room.
Maybe that is just what a

513
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,400
frightened mother sees in the
middle of crisis.

514
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,960
But what makes Sophia's account
harder to wave away is the way

515
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:52,800
she remembers the sequence, the
order, the pacing, the feeling

516
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:56,040
that the room was moving around
smaller concerns while her

517
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,240
daughter's breathing was the
thing that should have been

518
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,760
commanding everything.
Sophia told our show's

519
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,800
investigator and producer JC
Reedberg that the doctor came in

520
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:09,440
talking about a CAT scan,
talking about kidney stones,

521
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:11,800
talking about kidney levels
being high.

522
00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:16,640
And in Sophia's mind, all of
that may have been real, all of

523
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:20,200
that may have belonged somewhere
in the medical picture, but none

524
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:22,560
of it matched the emergency she
was staring at.

525
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:25,280
Her daughter was struggling to
breathe.

526
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,560
That was the emergency.
That was the thing she says the

527
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,080
room was not treating with the
urgency it deserved.

528
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:35,600
And this is where the story
begins tightening around one of

529
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:39,680
its most important questions.
Not whether Para was sick.

530
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,720
Everyone knew she was sick.
Not whether Para had underlying

531
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:46,280
conditions.
Everyone knew she did.

532
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,680
The question is whether the
people in that room recognized

533
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:53,400
how fast the situation was
turning and moved accordingly,

534
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,480
because, according to Sophia,
they did not.

535
00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:00,080
Then the doctor ordered a CPAP
machine.

536
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:04,640
And for Sophia, this is one of
the sharpest edges in the entire

537
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:08,680
case, because she believes that
should have happened much

538
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:10,640
earlier.
Not later.

539
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,760
Not after the room had already
spent all that time moving too

540
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:17,000
slowly for her comfort.
Not after her daughter's

541
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,720
breathing had worsened.
Not after the waiting room.

542
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:22,000
Not after the oxygen in the
nose.

543
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,640
Not after the samples sitting
there earlier.

544
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:28,960
That is what Sophia believes
earlier.

545
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:33,000
And if you listen closely to the
way she tells it, you hear

546
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:35,080
something deeper than
disagreement.

547
00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:39,120
You hear a mother constructing
the exact timeline of the moment

548
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,840
she believes the hospital began
losing her daughter.

549
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,760
She says Para had been left
fighting for air for hours.

550
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,600
That is the family's phrase,
left fighting for air.

551
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:54,080
And then, according to Sophia,
at around 5:55 in the morning,

552
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:59,760
the CPAP was finally put on that
time matters.

553
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:03,160
The timing matters, because
timing is the backbone of

554
00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,320
Sophia's whole account.
The difference between moving

555
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,920
now and moving later, The
difference between urgent care

556
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:13,000
and delayed care.
The difference between a body

557
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:17,040
being met where it is and a body
falling further into crisis

558
00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:20,920
while the room catches up too
slowly, Sophia says.

559
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:25,240
The mask goes on, and almost
immediately, something feels

560
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,920
wrong.
This is the moment that sits at

561
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,600
the center of everything, the
moment this entire story keeps

562
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:36,240
circling back to.
The mask goes on and Para starts

563
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:40,760
tugging at it, pulling at it,
trying to get it off, trying to

564
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:44,640
communicate something, trying to
tell the people around her that

565
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,120
this does not feel right, Trying
to tell her mother that this

566
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:51,400
does not feel right.
And then she says the words that

567
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:54,920
now live in Sophia's mind like a
permanent wound.

568
00:33:55,880 --> 00:34:01,720
Mom, this is way too much air
that Sophia says was the last

569
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:03,200
thing her daughter ever said to
her.

570
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:07,040
Just sit with that.
Not a goodbye, not a final

571
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,800
message of love, not some
cinematic last sentence that

572
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,120
ties the knight into a neat
emotional knot.

573
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,960
A distress signal, a complaint,
A plea.

574
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:20,080
A young woman telling her mother
that whatever is happening to

575
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,040
her body in that moment feels
wrong.

576
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:27,760
Mom, this is way too much air.
And from there, everything

577
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,679
begins to collapse.
Sophia says Para's heart rate

578
00:34:31,679 --> 00:34:36,520
had been up around 1:33.
Then it dropped, dropped all the

579
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:40,440
way down to 47.
And once that happens, the room

580
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,920
changes from dangerous to
catastrophic.

581
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:47,560
Now the body is crashing.
Now the room is moving.

582
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:50,480
Now the fear that had been
building becomes visible.

583
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:54,120
Now the thing Sophia had been
dreading is right there in front

584
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:56,960
of her.
She says she started screaming,

585
00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,920
asking what happened to her
daughter's heart rate, asking

586
00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:04,640
why they were not doing more,
asking why they were not acting

587
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:07,960
faster.
And in that moment, the question

588
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:10,080
stopped being clinical and
become primal.

589
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:14,560
What is happening to my child?
Why is this happening right now?

590
00:35:15,240 --> 00:35:17,960
Why does it feel like everybody
is still a beat behind what her

591
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,800
body is telling you?
Sophia says staff were shaking

592
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:24,680
para telling her to say
something to her mother.

593
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:28,240
And as the scene grows more
frantic, one question gets

594
00:35:28,240 --> 00:35:30,400
louder and louder in Sophia's
mind.

595
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:33,680
Why is nobody starting CPR right
now?

596
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,920
That is an important line
because it tells you exactly

597
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:40,120
where Sophia believes the room
was failing.

598
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:44,800
Not just in treatment, in
timing, not just in decision

599
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:48,480
making, in urgency.
And then comes one of the

600
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:50,800
hardest images in the entire
story.

601
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:54,520
Sophia says that while Para was
trying to pull at the mask,

602
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:59,200
staff put restraints on her
arms, restrained her, held her

603
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:01,960
there.
And according to Sophia, this

604
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,040
was happening while her
daughter's body was already

605
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:07,040
collapsing.
That detail changes the

606
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:10,920
emotional temperature of the
whole scene, because now the

607
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:13,800
listener is not just imagining a
patient in crisis.

608
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,240
Now the listener is imagining a
woman in distress trying to

609
00:36:17,240 --> 00:36:21,160
signal that something feels
wrong and being restrained while

610
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:25,360
the room still has not, in
Sophia's view, fully met the

611
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:29,080
danger.
A woman trying to pull away, a

612
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:32,960
mother watching a room full of
professionals and still,

613
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:35,800
according to Sophia, not the
right urgency.

614
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:39,680
Then para coded.
And this is where hospital

615
00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:43,000
language can hide the violence
of what actually happened if you

616
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:46,720
let it stay abstract.
Because coded can sound small if

617
00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:50,360
you have never seen it.
It can sound like 1 clean word,

618
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:53,680
1 clinical phrase, one sterile
line in a chart.

619
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:58,600
But the way Sophia explained it
to JC Reedberg strips that

620
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:02,480
distance away.
When Sophia says para coded 4

621
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:06,400
times, what she means is this.
Her daughter's heart stopped.

622
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:10,360
They tried to bring her back.
Her heart stopped again.

623
00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:15,080
They tried to bring her back
again, and again and again.

624
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,640
Four times.
That is what coded meant in that

625
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:23,520
room.
It meant crash, CPR, revive,

626
00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:31,080
crash, CPR, revive, crash again,
Hands moving, machines sounding,

627
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,440
panic rising.
A mother being forced to watch

628
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,360
her daughter move in and out of
death more than once.

629
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:41,000
That is not a term.
That is not a chart entry.

630
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:45,400
That is a horror sequence, and
because Sophia explains it that

631
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:49,080
way, the listener cannot hide
behind hospital language either.

632
00:37:49,720 --> 00:37:54,080
You have to face what it means.
A heart stopped and they fought

633
00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:58,120
to bring it back.
Then it stopped again, and they

634
00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:02,880
fought again, then again, then
again four times.

635
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:05,880
By now, the room is no longer a
place of treatment.

636
00:38:06,160 --> 00:38:09,960
It is a place of collapse, a
place where hope and terror are

637
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:14,240
both happening at once, a place
where every successful revival

638
00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:17,520
only opens the possibility of
losing her again seconds later.

639
00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:21,720
And somewhere inside all of
that, a mother is still trying

640
00:38:21,720 --> 00:38:25,920
to make sense of sequence, still
trying to track what was done,

641
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:30,800
what was not done, what came too
late, what should have happened

642
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:36,320
sooner, what the mask did, what
the restraints meant, why the

643
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,360
room did not feel right, why her
daughter said the air was too

644
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,760
much, why everything seemed to
break apart the moment that

645
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:48,000
machine was put on.
That is how trauma works, even

646
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:50,480
in catastrophe.
The mind starts building its own

647
00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:53,280
evidence file.
It starts grabbing details,

648
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:56,200
because details are all you have
when the person you love is

649
00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:57,760
slipping out of reach in front
of you.

650
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:01,920
Sophia says after this, they
took her out of the room.

651
00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:06,480
And that is its own kind of
violence, too, because now the

652
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:09,800
mother is no longer even in the
immediate scene of the fight.

653
00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:15,960
Now she is outside it, waiting
again, listening again, trying

654
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:19,240
to hold herself together while
her daughter's life is in other

655
00:39:19,240 --> 00:39:23,640
people's hands.
She called her mother, called

656
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:27,520
her father, told them to come.
Those are the kinds of calls

657
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:31,280
people never forget making.
Those are the kinds of calls

658
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:34,280
that divide a life into before
and after.

659
00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:38,880
Come.
Now something is terribly wrong.

660
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,680
And somewhere in all of that
terror, there is still no clear

661
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:46,640
answer to the question at the
center of Sophia's grief.

662
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:51,240
How did it get this bad?
How did her daughter go from

663
00:39:51,240 --> 00:39:55,640
breathing in distress, to saying
the air was too much, to being

664
00:39:55,640 --> 00:40:00,120
restrained, to coding again and
again inside a hospital room

665
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:02,120
that was supposed to be saving
her?

666
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,320
That is the question this
section leaves hanging.

667
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:09,800
Because according to Sophia,
what came next only deepened her

668
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:13,880
belief that they had taken too
long, moved too slowly, and

669
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,280
failed to meet the crisis the
way they should have.

670
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:20,160
And once you hear what she says
happened after the codes, the

671
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:24,400
brain doctor, the swelling, the
death certificate, the picture

672
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:28,720
becomes even harder to ignore.
According to Sophia, after the

673
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:30,480
codes, they took her out of the
room.

674
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:35,200
That matters because once you
are removed from the scene, you

675
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:40,960
are left with only fragments,
sound, delay, fear, whatever

676
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:43,120
somebody chooses to come back
and tell you.

677
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:48,360
And when the person you love has
just coded more than once, every

678
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:53,520
second outside that room becomes
its own kind of torture, Sophia

679
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:57,040
says she called her mother,
called her father, told them to

680
00:40:57,040 --> 00:40:59,360
come.
Those are not ordinary phone

681
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:01,760
calls.
Those are life splitting phone

682
00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:04,320
calls.
Those are the calls people make

683
00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,760
when they can feel the world
changing under their feet and

684
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:10,400
there is no language big enough
for what is happening.

685
00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:14,760
Then, according to Sophia, a
nurse came back and said they

686
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:18,080
had gotten Peres heart back and
we're taking her to ICU.

687
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:21,760
By that point, Sophia says they
had put a tube down her

688
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:26,000
daughter's throat.
And even in that moment, even in

689
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,960
the middle of terror, the story
was still shifting.

690
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:34,000
Because once a breathing crisis
becomes intubation, once a body

691
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:38,560
starts coding and being pulled
back, once ICU enters the

692
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:42,200
picture, the room is no longer
pretending this is minor.

693
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:45,080
Now everybody understands the
stakes.

694
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:49,000
Now the language changes.
Now the tone changes.

695
00:41:49,720 --> 00:41:52,400
Now the body has crossed into a
different level of danger.

696
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:56,920
Then, Sophia says a doctor
introduced himself as the brain

697
00:41:56,920 --> 00:42:01,480
doctor, and she remembers that
because it frightened her, not

698
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:04,720
because the phrase was
technical, because the phrase

699
00:42:04,720 --> 00:42:07,720
meant something.
It meant they were worried about

700
00:42:07,720 --> 00:42:11,880
her daughter's brain, worried
about oxygen, worried about

701
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:15,360
time, worried about what had
happened while her body was

702
00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:18,800
struggling to breathe and then
crashing in front of them.

703
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,680
He told her it was too soon to
know how much the brain had been

704
00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:26,480
affected, too soon to say, too
soon to tell.

705
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,240
But when a doctor starts talking
to a mother about the brain

706
00:42:30,240 --> 00:42:33,760
after her daughter has coded
repeatedly, there is nothing

707
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:38,000
small about that conversation.
It means the crisis has already

708
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:41,640
crossed another line.
It means the danger is no longer

709
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:44,320
just the lungs, no longer just
the heart.

710
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,520
Now the question is what the
lack of oxygen may have done

711
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:52,200
everywhere else.
Sophia says later they were told

712
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:54,080
there was swelling in her
daughter's brain.

713
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:58,400
And to Sophia, that detail did
not feel random.

714
00:42:59,240 --> 00:43:02,720
It felt like confirmation.
Confirmation of what she had

715
00:43:02,720 --> 00:43:06,720
already begun believing in real
time that they took too long.

716
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:11,360
Too long to respond the right
way, Too long to move with the

717
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:16,400
urgency the moment required.
Too long to start CPR, Too long

718
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:18,800
to save the oxygen her
daughter's brain needed.

719
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:23,480
That is how Sophia understands
the sequence, and once you hear

720
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:26,760
it laid out that way, you begin
to understand that her grief is

721
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:29,320
not shapeless.
It is not vague.

722
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:32,240
It is not just rage looking for
a target.

723
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:36,360
Her grief has a timeline, a
sequence, a structure.

724
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:41,080
In her mind, the order matters.
The delay matters.

725
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:44,440
The mask matters.
The restraints matter.

726
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:48,680
The drop in heart rate matters.
The swelling matters.

727
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:53,120
Every piece belongs to the same
story, and that story in

728
00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:55,400
Sophia's telling has one
conclusion.

729
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,880
Her daughter was failed.
Now this is where people usually

730
00:43:59,880 --> 00:44:02,000
start getting cautious in the
wrong way.

731
00:44:02,720 --> 00:44:05,360
This is where people start
backing away from the center of

732
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:09,000
a mother's accusation because
the accusation is too serious to

733
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:12,400
sit with comfortably.
But Sophia is not uncertain

734
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:15,480
about what she believes.
She does not believe this was

735
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:18,600
simply lupus.
She does not believe this was

736
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:22,720
just nature taking its course.
She says the doctors told her

737
00:44:22,720 --> 00:44:25,680
pneumonia was part of what was
happening, and she does not

738
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:28,840
reject that.
But she rejects the idea that

739
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:33,400
pneumonia or lupus by themselves
explain everything she saw.

740
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:37,240
Because what she is describing
is not just illness.

741
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:40,760
It is delay.
It is a room she says was not

742
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:42,440
matching the crisis in front of
it.

743
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:45,720
It is a young woman saying the
air is too much and then

744
00:44:45,720 --> 00:44:47,800
crashing almost immediately
after.

745
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:51,800
It is a mother screaming for
people to move faster, it is a

746
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:55,800
daughter coding 4 times, and it
is a brain swelling after the

747
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:59,400
fact.
That is why Sophia does not hear

748
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:01,680
this story as simple medical
tragedy.

749
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:06,000
She hears it as fatal failure.
And there is something else that

750
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:08,520
makes Sophia's conviction harder
to dismiss.

751
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:11,840
She says Para's death
certificate lists shock and

752
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:14,080
acute respiratory failure with
hypoxia.

753
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:17,360
In her mind, that does not quiet
the questions.

754
00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:20,760
It deepens them.
Those words matter.

755
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:24,280
Not because a death certificate
can tell you every emotional

756
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:27,520
truth of a room.
Not because a death certificate

757
00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:30,600
can replay the exact second a
mother heard her daughter say

758
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:34,320
the air was too much.
But because when you place what

759
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,600
Sophia says is listed on that
death certificate beside what

760
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:41,240
she remembers from that room, it
does not settle the story.

761
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:44,560
It sharpens it.
It gives clinical language to

762
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:48,160
what she says she witnessed, a
body sent into crisis.

763
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:52,440
A body deprived of oxygen.
Not because a death certificate

764
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:54,880
can tell you every emotional
truth of a room.

765
00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:58,720
Not because it can replay the
exact second a mother heard her

766
00:45:58,720 --> 00:46:00,400
daughter say the air was too
much.

767
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:05,000
But because when you place what
Sophia says is listed there

768
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:08,680
beside what she remembers from
that room, it does not settle

769
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:10,880
the story.
It sharpens it.

770
00:46:11,240 --> 00:46:14,240
It gives clinical language to
what she says she witnessed.

771
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:20,160
A body sent into crisis, a body
deprived of oxygen, a body

772
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:23,720
collapsing in ways that went far
beyond a routine downturn in a

773
00:46:23,720 --> 00:46:27,720
chronic illness.
And that is why Sophia does not

774
00:46:27,720 --> 00:46:30,960
speak like a woman trying to
make peace with an unfortunate

775
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:33,400
ending.
She speaks like a woman who

776
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:36,360
believes something catastrophic
happened inside that room,

777
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:40,360
something preventable, something
that should never have reached

778
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:43,800
the point it reached.
And maybe that is why one line

779
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,760
from the death certificate
matters so much here, because

780
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:51,040
acute respiratory failure with
hypoxia is not abstract.

781
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,720
When you have just spent the
night hearing a mother describe

782
00:46:53,720 --> 00:46:57,280
a daughter fighting for air,
hearing about shallow breathing,

783
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:02,480
hearing about a delayed CPAP,
hearing a final sentence about

784
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:06,640
too much air, hearing about a
heart rate collapsing, hearing

785
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:10,720
about repeated codes once those
details are already inside you,

786
00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:14,120
the death certificate does not
read like a neutral form.

787
00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:17,600
It reads like a colder version
of the same horror.

788
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:20,080
And Sophia carries something
else, too.

789
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:24,800
Not just grief, not just memory,
not just accusation.

790
00:47:25,720 --> 00:47:28,360
She carries the burden of
knowing enough to watch the room

791
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:29,920
differently than most people
would.

792
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:33,640
Because Sophia says she worked
as a nurse in Cooper Hospital's

793
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:37,080
emergency room for four years
before becoming disabled after

794
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:41,400
being hit by a bus.
That detail matters not because

795
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:44,280
it makes every conclusion she
draws automatically final.

796
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:47,480
It does not.
But because it means she is not

797
00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:50,880
speaking as somebody totally
unfamiliar with hospital rhythm.

798
00:47:52,080 --> 00:47:55,080
She is not speaking as somebody
who has never seen an emergency

799
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:58,440
room move fast.
She says she has seen everything

800
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:04,000
Gunshot wounds, overdoses,
assault victims, sick children.

801
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:08,120
Emergency after emergency after
emergency.

802
00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:12,280
So when she talks about timing,
she is not inventing a standard

803
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:15,160
from nowhere.
When she talks about urgency,

804
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:17,640
she is not speaking in total
ignorance.

805
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:21,360
When she talks about what should
have happened sooner, she is

806
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,760
speaking as a woman who says she
has spent time inside that kind

807
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:27,640
of system.
A woman who knows what it feels

808
00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:30,720
like when a room is moving
correctly and knows what it

809
00:48:30,720 --> 00:48:33,840
feels like when it is not.
That does not mean every

810
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:37,600
conclusion she makes is beyond
challenge, but it does mean her

811
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:39,760
testimony carries a different
kind of weight.

812
00:48:40,720 --> 00:48:43,600
Because now the listener is not
just hearing a grieving mother

813
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:48,200
say something felt wrong.
The listener is hearing a

814
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:52,320
grieving mother with emergency
room experience say the sequence

815
00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:56,680
was wrong, the response was
wrong, the urgency was wrong.

816
00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,520
That is a very different thing.
And Sophia does not stop there.

817
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:03,560
She says she knows something
about pneumonia personally

818
00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:07,760
because she has had it herself.
She says when her oxygen

819
00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:11,120
dropped, they moved quickly, put
her on breathing support,

820
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:15,160
immediately took her to ICU
right away, started IV

821
00:49:15,240 --> 00:49:18,920
antibiotics.
That comparison matters because

822
00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:21,600
it shows how she is measuring
what happened to her daughter,

823
00:49:22,240 --> 00:49:26,800
not just against emotion,
against experience, against what

824
00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:30,600
she says she has seen before,
against what she says happened

825
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:32,600
when she herself was in
distress.

826
00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:35,920
And that is why she cannot
accept the pace of what happened

827
00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:39,440
to Para.
In her mind, the room had enough

828
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:41,840
information.
They knew her daughter had

829
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:45,320
serious underlying issues.
They knew she had lupus

830
00:49:45,320 --> 00:49:48,360
complications.
They knew she had a weak heart.

831
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:50,600
They knew she had fluid
problems.

832
00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:52,920
They knew she was medically
fragile.

833
00:49:53,520 --> 00:49:57,640
And still, in Sophia's telling,
they did not treat her like the

834
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:01,600
critical patient she was.
That is the heart of her claim,

835
00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:06,600
not just that Para died, but
that Para was not recognized,

836
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:10,400
prioritized, and treated with
the seriousness her condition

837
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:13,640
demanded.
And once you understand that,

838
00:50:14,120 --> 00:50:17,320
you also understand why Sophia's
public grief sounds the way it

839
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:21,800
does, why it does not sound
quiet, why it does not sound

840
00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:26,000
resigned, why it does not sound
like somebody gently mourning a

841
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:28,880
loss.
She is already accepted as fate

842
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,360
because what she is describing
is not fate.

843
00:50:33,200 --> 00:50:36,880
It is a room she believes kept
missing the moment, a room she

844
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,960
believes kept arriving late to
the emergency right in front of

845
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:42,360
it.
A room she believes let her

846
00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:45,320
daughter fight too long before
truly meeting the crisis.

847
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:48,720
That is what makes this story so
difficult to hear.

848
00:50:49,240 --> 00:50:52,200
And that is also what begins
connecting Para's case to

849
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:54,800
something much larger than one
family's pain.

850
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:59,240
Because once you move beyond the
room itself, once you widen the

851
00:50:59,240 --> 00:51:03,120
frame beyond Sophia's testimony,
you begin to see that her fear

852
00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:07,600
did not emerge in empty space.
It landed inside a hospital that

853
00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:09,400
already carried public
complaints.

854
00:51:10,080 --> 00:51:14,240
Complaints about communication,
Complaints about bedside manner,

855
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:17,960
complaints about weights.
Complaints about how patients

856
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:20,240
say they were treated when they
were most vulnerable.

857
00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:24,200
And when those public complaints
meet a story like this, the

858
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:26,920
bigger question becomes
impossible to ignore.

859
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:29,920
Was Para failed inside a
hospital?

860
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:31,960
Too many people already did not
trust.

861
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:35,440
When you start pulling back from
Sophia's account of that

862
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:38,400
hospital room and looking at
Virtua Mount Holly in public,

863
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:42,760
something else comes into focus.
The distrust did not begin with

864
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:46,120
her.
That matters because one

865
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:49,760
family's testimony is one thing.
A wider public pattern is

866
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:53,360
something else, and when you
begin reading what patients,

867
00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:56,920
families and workers have said
about Virtua, Mount Holly and

868
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:00,720
the larger Virtua Network, you
start hearing certain words

869
00:52:00,720 --> 00:52:05,520
repeat themselves, not always in
the same order, not always with

870
00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:08,880
the same details, but often with
the same feeling.

871
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:13,800
Long waits, poor communication,
dismissive treatment, rude

872
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:18,000
bedside manner, a sense of being
ignored while something serious

873
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:21,920
is happening, a sense that the
room is not moving with the

874
00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:25,440
urgency the body is demanding.
Now.

875
00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:28,080
Public reviews are not medical
charts.

876
00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:31,400
They are not verdicts.
They are not proof of what

877
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:34,680
happened to PARA, and it would
be dishonest to pretend they

878
00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:37,400
are.
Hospitals, like every large

879
00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:41,080
institution, have people who
leave satisfied and people who

880
00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:44,200
leave angry.
That is true almost everywhere.

881
00:52:44,720 --> 00:52:47,920
But what matters in a case like
this is not whether every review

882
00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:50,440
is bad.
It is whether the same

883
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:53,920
complaints keep surfacing often
enough to form a pattern people

884
00:52:53,920 --> 00:52:57,080
can recognize.
And around Virtua Mount Holly,

885
00:52:57,280 --> 00:53:01,120
those complaints do repeat.
People describe emergency room

886
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:04,720
waits that feel endless.
They describe asking for updates

887
00:53:04,720 --> 00:53:07,840
and getting very little.
They describe staff who, in

888
00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:11,480
their view, came off cold,
impatient or dismissive.

889
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:15,200
They describe care that felt
inconsistent from one stay to

890
00:53:15,200 --> 00:53:18,720
the next, from one shift to the
next, from one nurse to the

891
00:53:18,720 --> 00:53:21,480
next.
They describe the feeling that

892
00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:25,560
if you are not loud enough,
nobody moves, and if you are too

893
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:30,280
loud, you become a problem.
That language should sound

894
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:34,520
familiar by now, because that is
not far from the fear Sophia

895
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:36,960
says her daughter already
carried into hospitals.

896
00:53:37,760 --> 00:53:42,000
The fear of not being believed.
The fear of being looked at

897
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:45,640
before being listened to.
The fear of being judged before

898
00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:48,800
being treated.
The fear that the staff in front

899
00:53:48,800 --> 00:53:53,760
of you may be evaluating your
attitude, your tone, your pain,

900
00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:58,880
your body, your worth before
they evaluate the crisis itself.

901
00:53:59,920 --> 00:54:02,680
And again, that does not prove
Para's case.

902
00:54:03,200 --> 00:54:07,560
But it does matter, because it
tells you Sophia's distrust did

903
00:54:07,560 --> 00:54:11,080
not rise in isolation.
It tells you that when she says

904
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,880
what she says about Virtua Mount
Holly, her words are landing in

905
00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:18,800
a place already burdened by
public frustration, already

906
00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:22,480
burdened by stories of
communication breakdown, already

907
00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:25,520
burdened by patients who say
they left feeling unseen.

908
00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:29,720
And the story gets heavier when
you move beyond public reviews

909
00:54:29,720 --> 00:54:32,880
and into formal scrutiny,
because the criticism

910
00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:36,360
surrounding Virtua is not
limited to online complaints.

911
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:41,360
In September of 2024, New
Jersey's attorney general filed

912
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:44,960
A complaint against Virtua
Health and hospitals it operates

913
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:48,440
in Mount Holly, Camden and
Voorhees, alleging

914
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:51,880
discriminatory treatment of
pregnant patients, including

915
00:54:51,880 --> 00:54:54,000
drug testing, without informed
consent.

916
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:58,240
Let that sit there for a second.
Not a rumor.

917
00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:02,520
Not a comment section theory.
Not a random TikTok allegation.

918
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:06,280
A formal complaint from the
state of New Jersey alleging

919
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:09,520
discrimination and failures
around informed consent.

920
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:13,000
That does not mean Para's case
is the same case.

921
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:15,920
It does not.
But it does mean the network

922
00:55:15,920 --> 00:55:19,240
that runs Virtua Mount Holly has
already faced serious public

923
00:55:19,240 --> 00:55:23,240
allegations involving unequal
treatment, vulnerable patients,

924
00:55:23,680 --> 00:55:25,960
and the question of whether
people in its care were

925
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:28,760
respected with full dignity and
full information.

926
00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:33,720
And in stories like this, that
matters because when a mother

927
00:55:33,720 --> 00:55:37,560
says my daughter was not treated
right in that hospital and the

928
00:55:37,560 --> 00:55:40,680
larger network has already faced
allegations tied to

929
00:55:40,680 --> 00:55:45,280
discrimination and informed
consent, her accusation no

930
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:48,240
longer sounds like it is
floating alone in empty air.

931
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:53,280
Then there is the 2020 union
complaint involving Virtua Mount

932
00:55:53,280 --> 00:55:56,560
Holly itself, where nurses
allege that potentially

933
00:55:56,560 --> 00:55:59,840
substandard and possibly
counterfeit respirator masks

934
00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:02,280
were distributed during the
COVID crisis.

935
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:07,040
Virtua denied that allegation.
That denial matters too.

936
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:10,840
But so does the fact that the
complaint existed at all.

937
00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:14,720
Because what that moment reveals
is not just disagreement over

938
00:56:14,720 --> 00:56:17,560
masks.
It reveals an institution

939
00:56:17,560 --> 00:56:22,040
already sitting inside public
conflict over safety, trust and

940
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:24,920
whether the people working and
receiving care inside that

941
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:27,480
building were being protected
the way they should have been.

942
00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:31,200
And when you layer those things
together, the picture becomes

943
00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:34,160
more complicated than one night
and one room.

944
00:56:35,360 --> 00:56:38,600
You begin to see a hospital and
a network that have already

945
00:56:38,600 --> 00:56:42,120
faced public pressure over the
very things families worry about

946
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:44,640
most when they hand over
somebody they love.

947
00:56:45,520 --> 00:56:51,360
Safety, communication, consent,
urgency, care, respect.

948
00:56:51,800 --> 00:56:55,480
Even Virtua's own public patient
rights language matters here

949
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:58,760
because on paper, the promises
are clear.

950
00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:02,400
Patients are supposed to receive
care without discrimination.

951
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:05,400
They are supposed to receive
explanations they can

952
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:08,240
understand.
They are supposed to have their

953
00:57:08,240 --> 00:57:11,480
questions answered.
They are supposed to be treated

954
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:14,520
with dignity.
They are supposed to have a path

955
00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:16,440
to grievance if something goes
wrong.

956
00:57:17,680 --> 00:57:21,000
That is what institutions say
when they tell the public they

957
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:24,040
are trustworthy.
That is the language hospitals

958
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:27,760
use when they ask families to
put their lives in their hands.

959
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:32,040
And that is exactly why stories
like Sophia's land so hard.

960
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:35,800
Because the pain is not only in
what she says happened.

961
00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:39,600
The pain is in the distance
between what a hospital promises

962
00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:42,320
and what a mother says she
watched with her own eyes.

963
00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:47,160
A daughter fighting for air.
A room moving too slowly.

964
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:52,240
A mask that felt wrong.
Restraints, A crashing heart

965
00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:57,760
rate, repeated codes, a brain
swelling later, and a mother now

966
00:57:57,760 --> 00:58:01,680
standing outside the building
saying in public that something

967
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:04,160
happened in there that should
never have happened.

968
00:58:05,040 --> 00:58:07,680
This is where the story gets
bigger than Virtua Mount Holly.

969
00:58:08,200 --> 00:58:11,680
Because once you step back far
enough, you are no longer just

970
00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:13,720
asking what kind of hospital
this is.

971
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:17,400
You are asking what kind of
country teaches black families

972
00:58:17,720 --> 00:58:21,080
to walk into medical spaces
already braced for harm?

973
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:25,360
What kind of history teaches a
daughter to fear hospitals

974
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:29,400
before she is even in crisis?
What kind of accumulated

975
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:32,400
experience makes a grieving
mother's accusation sound

976
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:35,520
plausible to so many people the
moment they hear it?

977
00:58:36,440 --> 00:58:40,000
Because for black families,
medical mistrust did not begin

978
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:43,120
on social media.
It did not begin with Sophia's

979
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:45,520
video.
It did not begin with para.

980
00:58:46,040 --> 00:58:48,280
It has roots.
It has memory.

981
00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:52,680
It has history.
It lives in stories of pain

982
00:58:52,680 --> 00:58:58,240
minimized, symptoms dismissed,
questions brushed off, consent

983
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:03,560
blurred, bodies studied, used,
doubted and mishandled.

984
00:59:04,680 --> 00:59:08,040
It lives in the everyday
language Black people pass down

985
00:59:08,040 --> 00:59:12,880
to each other about doctors,
nurses, emergency rooms, and the

986
00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:16,480
difference between what care is
supposed to feel like and what

987
00:59:16,480 --> 00:59:18,880
it too often feels like in
reality.

988
00:59:19,640 --> 00:59:23,320
That is why this story cannot be
reduced to one family simply

989
00:59:23,320 --> 00:59:27,320
struggling to accept loss.
Because one of the ugliest

990
00:59:27,320 --> 00:59:30,440
things about racial inequality
in medicine is that it trains

991
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:33,040
people to question whether help
will come in time.

992
00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:36,640
It trains people to wonder
whether their pain will be taken

993
00:59:36,640 --> 00:59:39,680
seriously.
It trains people to look at

994
00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:43,160
delay and ask whether delay
would have looked different in

995
00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:46,080
another body.
That is the question humming

996
00:59:46,080 --> 00:59:51,000
underneath stories like this,
not always spoken directly, but

997
00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:54,000
present.
Would the room have moved faster

998
00:59:54,000 --> 00:59:56,800
for someone else?
Would the urgency have looked

999
00:59:56,800 --> 01:00:00,080
different for someone else?
Would the bedside tone have been

1000
01:00:00,080 --> 01:00:03,280
different for someone else?
Would the assumptions have been

1001
01:00:03,280 --> 01:00:07,080
different for someone else?
Those questions are not born

1002
01:00:07,080 --> 01:00:10,040
from nowhere.
They are born from repetition,

1003
01:00:10,720 --> 01:00:14,920
born from disparity, born from
too many families carrying too

1004
01:00:14,920 --> 01:00:18,680
many versions of the same wound.
And that is where Sophia's

1005
01:00:18,680 --> 01:00:21,080
testimony becomes more than
personal grief.

1006
01:00:21,720 --> 01:00:24,360
Because once she starts talking
about how Black people are

1007
01:00:24,360 --> 01:00:27,680
treated in hospitals, once she
starts talking about how her

1008
01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:30,840
daughter had been made to feel
like staff thought she was there

1009
01:00:30,840 --> 01:00:34,240
for pain medicine, once she
starts talking about needing to

1010
01:00:34,240 --> 01:00:37,480
be present, to watch, to
intervene, to make sure her

1011
01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:40,920
daughter was not dismissed, she
is no longer speaking only as

1012
01:00:40,920 --> 01:00:44,000
Para's mother.
She is speaking from a community

1013
01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:49,120
memory, a Black memory, a memory
that says the hospital is not

1014
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:51,240
always experienced as a
sanctuary.

1015
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:54,960
Sometimes it is experienced as a
place where you may have to

1016
01:00:54,960 --> 01:00:57,560
advocate harder to be seen as
fully human.

1017
01:00:58,640 --> 01:01:01,800
Sometimes it is experienced as a
place where your fear must

1018
01:01:01,800 --> 01:01:05,400
arrive already armed.
And maybe that is why Sophia's

1019
01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:08,640
video outside Virtua Mount Holly
struck such a nerve.

1020
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:12,960
Because after it was posted, the
response was not only sympathy,

1021
01:01:13,400 --> 01:01:16,800
it was recognition.
People hearing her and saying, I

1022
01:01:16,800 --> 01:01:19,640
know why you're saying that.
I know why you don't trust what

1023
01:01:19,640 --> 01:01:23,040
happened in there.
I know why you're standing

1024
01:01:23,040 --> 01:01:26,040
outside that building instead of
quietly grieving at home.

1025
01:01:26,840 --> 01:01:29,760
Some people even began sharing
their own allegations about

1026
01:01:29,760 --> 01:01:33,640
neglect and improper care.
We have not independently

1027
01:01:33,640 --> 01:01:37,200
verified every one of those
accounts, but their existence

1028
01:01:37,200 --> 01:01:40,760
still means something.
It means Sophia's accusation did

1029
01:01:40,760 --> 01:01:44,280
not land in a vacuum.
It landed in a community already

1030
01:01:44,280 --> 01:01:47,400
prepared to believe that
hospital neglect, indifference,

1031
01:01:47,400 --> 01:01:50,640
or delay could be deadly.
And that is what makes this

1032
01:01:50,640 --> 01:01:54,040
story so heavy.
Because when public complaints,

1033
01:01:54,040 --> 01:01:57,520
public scrutiny, personal
testimony, and black medical

1034
01:01:57,520 --> 01:02:01,320
mistrust all begin touching the
same case, the burden on the

1035
01:02:01,320 --> 01:02:04,040
institution grows.
The questions grow.

1036
01:02:04,320 --> 01:02:08,120
The stakes grow.
The silence grows louder, and

1037
01:02:08,120 --> 01:02:10,640
that silence does not answer
Sophia's questions.

1038
01:02:11,320 --> 01:02:15,120
It leaves them where they
already were, sharp, unsettled,

1039
01:02:15,720 --> 01:02:19,480
unresolved.
What happened in that room?

1040
01:02:20,040 --> 01:02:23,400
Why did help in Sophia's telling
feel late?

1041
01:02:24,040 --> 01:02:26,960
Why did the room feel out of
sync with the crisis?

1042
01:02:27,680 --> 01:02:29,960
Why did her daughter say the air
was too much?

1043
01:02:30,440 --> 01:02:33,840
Why was she restrained?
Why did her heart keep stopping?

1044
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:37,640
Why did the death certificate
later point to shock and acute

1045
01:02:37,640 --> 01:02:39,840
respiratory failure with
hypoxia?

1046
01:02:40,520 --> 01:02:43,880
And why, when all of that is
placed against the public record

1047
01:02:43,880 --> 01:02:47,600
surrounding Virtua Mount Holly
and the larger Virtua Network,

1048
01:02:48,080 --> 01:02:51,800
does this story become harder,
not easier, to dismiss?

1049
01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:56,640
Because in the end, that is what
deep dives like this are for.

1050
01:02:57,160 --> 01:03:01,080
Not to turn grief into gossip.
Not to turn pain into spectacle,

1051
01:03:01,640 --> 01:03:05,440
but to ask with seriousness and
without flinching, whether the

1052
01:03:05,440 --> 01:03:08,400
system did what it was supposed
to do when a black woman's life

1053
01:03:08,400 --> 01:03:11,880
depended on it.
And in Sophia Shannon's eyes,

1054
01:03:12,040 --> 01:03:14,680
the answer to that question is
devastatingly clear.

1055
01:03:15,240 --> 01:03:18,360
No.
And once you reach that point,

1056
01:03:18,600 --> 01:03:21,920
once you have sat with Sophia's
testimony, the hospital

1057
01:03:21,920 --> 01:03:26,680
timeline, the public complaints,
the wider scrutiny around Virtua

1058
01:03:27,080 --> 01:03:31,040
and the larger truth of Black
medical mistrust, the story

1059
01:03:31,040 --> 01:03:33,760
stops being only about what
happened in one room.

1060
01:03:34,640 --> 01:03:38,600
It becomes about what was taken.
Because at the center of all of

1061
01:03:38,600 --> 01:03:43,280
this, beyond the hospital,
beyond the allegations, beyond

1062
01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:46,840
the public anger, beyond the
records and the reviews and the

1063
01:03:46,840 --> 01:03:50,560
legal questions, is a child,
Ava.

1064
01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:54,480
And every time Sophia talks
about her daughter, Ava is

1065
01:03:54,480 --> 01:03:57,480
there.
Not in the background, not as an

1066
01:03:57,480 --> 01:04:01,560
emotional add on at the center.
That matters.

1067
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:05,160
Because Para was not just loved
in the abstract.

1068
01:04:05,840 --> 01:04:08,480
She was needed.
She was needed in the daily way.

1069
01:04:08,480 --> 01:04:11,280
Mothers are needed in the
ordinary way.

1070
01:04:11,280 --> 01:04:14,560
Mothers are needed in the little
ways that never make it into

1071
01:04:14,560 --> 01:04:18,320
official records.
The rides, the conversations,

1072
01:04:18,640 --> 01:04:24,280
the time, the gifts, the
attention, the steady love, the

1073
01:04:24,280 --> 01:04:27,000
feeling a daughter gets when her
mother is still here and still

1074
01:04:27,000 --> 01:04:31,000
choosing her every day.
Sophia says Para made sure Ava

1075
01:04:31,000 --> 01:04:34,960
had what she needed and not just
materially, emotionally,

1076
01:04:35,160 --> 01:04:39,600
creatively, personally.
If Ava liked art, Para got her

1077
01:04:39,600 --> 01:04:43,320
art supplies.
If Ava needed time, Para made

1078
01:04:43,320 --> 01:04:45,720
time.
She took her to the park.

1079
01:04:46,040 --> 01:04:49,000
She bought her little things,
she fed her imagination.

1080
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:53,000
She loved her on purpose.
And that is the part hospital

1081
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:56,960
language can never fully hold.
A chart can say respiratory

1082
01:04:56,960 --> 01:05:01,760
failure, a record can say
cardiac arrest, a certificate

1083
01:05:01,760 --> 01:05:04,480
can say shock and acute
respiratory failure with

1084
01:05:04,480 --> 01:05:07,160
hypoxia.
But none of that language can

1085
01:05:07,160 --> 01:05:09,800
fully contain what it means for
a little girl to lose her

1086
01:05:09,800 --> 01:05:12,600
mother.
None of that language can fully

1087
01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:16,240
hold what it means for a family
to lose 1 of the people who gave

1088
01:05:16,240 --> 01:05:19,160
it rhythm.
None of that language can fully

1089
01:05:19,160 --> 01:05:22,560
hold what it means for Sophia
Shannon to now carry not only

1090
01:05:22,560 --> 01:05:26,080
grief, but a fixed and burning
belief that her daughter should

1091
01:05:26,080 --> 01:05:29,560
still be here.
Because once a mother says, I

1092
01:05:29,560 --> 01:05:32,880
watched my daughter fight for
air, you cannot reduce that to

1093
01:05:32,880 --> 01:05:36,760
paperwork.
Once a mother says, I watched

1094
01:05:36,760 --> 01:05:40,760
the room move too slowly, you
cannot reduce that to paperwork.

1095
01:05:41,560 --> 01:05:45,640
Once a mother says, my daughter
told me this is way too much air

1096
01:05:46,080 --> 01:05:48,320
and that was the last thing she
ever said to me.

1097
01:05:48,840 --> 01:05:51,080
You cannot reduce that to
paperwork.

1098
01:05:51,640 --> 01:05:54,520
And once a mother says, I
believe my child was failed in

1099
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:58,360
that hospital, you cannot ask
the public to hear that and feel

1100
01:05:58,360 --> 01:06:00,960
nothing.
So what do we do with a story

1101
01:06:00,960 --> 01:06:04,360
like this?
What do we do when a black

1102
01:06:04,360 --> 01:06:07,400
mother stands outside a hospital
and says something the

1103
01:06:07,400 --> 01:06:10,520
institution itself does not want
to attach to its name?

1104
01:06:11,360 --> 01:06:14,520
What do we do when the public
record around that hospital

1105
01:06:14,840 --> 01:06:17,760
already contains years of
complaints about delays,

1106
01:06:17,920 --> 01:06:20,840
communication, treatment, and
trust?

1107
01:06:21,600 --> 01:06:25,080
What do we do when a direct
interview with that mother gives

1108
01:06:25,080 --> 01:06:29,880
us a timeline that is not vague,
not shapeless, not confused, but

1109
01:06:29,880 --> 01:06:33,240
painfully specific?
What do we do when the death

1110
01:06:33,240 --> 01:06:36,840
certificate deepens rather than
quiets the questions?

1111
01:06:37,960 --> 01:06:40,960
What do we do when a little girl
is left growing up without the

1112
01:06:40,960 --> 01:06:43,960
mother who was supposed to be
here first?

1113
01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:46,440
We listen.
Really listen.

1114
01:06:47,080 --> 01:06:51,520
Not politely, not passively, not
the kind of listening that lets

1115
01:06:51,520 --> 01:06:55,200
a story wash over us for a day
and disappear by the next.

1116
01:06:56,080 --> 01:06:59,560
We listen in a way that
preserves, in a way that

1117
01:06:59,560 --> 01:07:03,960
records, in a way that refuses
to let the story shrink back

1118
01:07:03,960 --> 01:07:07,480
into a quiet obituary and be
swallowed by silence.

1119
01:07:08,160 --> 01:07:10,200
Because that is what happens too
often.

1120
01:07:10,880 --> 01:07:14,120
A black woman dies.
A family screams into the

1121
01:07:14,120 --> 01:07:16,160
Internet.
A few people share it.

1122
01:07:16,760 --> 01:07:20,560
A few people say how sad it is.
And then the system waits.

1123
01:07:21,160 --> 01:07:23,680
Waits for fatigue, Waits for
distraction.

1124
01:07:24,000 --> 01:07:27,320
Waits for people to move on,
waits for grief to become

1125
01:07:27,320 --> 01:07:30,600
private again.
Sophia Shannon is refusing that.

1126
01:07:31,320 --> 01:07:35,240
She is refusing to go quiet.
And by telling this story, we

1127
01:07:35,240 --> 01:07:38,760
are refusing it too.
Sophia says she wants people to

1128
01:07:38,760 --> 01:07:43,560
remember Para as a fighter.
That is the word fighter.

1129
01:07:44,200 --> 01:07:47,880
A woman who lived with lupus.
A woman recovering from

1130
01:07:47,880 --> 01:07:51,560
amputation.
A woman trying to get stronger.

1131
01:07:52,320 --> 01:07:55,880
A woman who loved to cook.
A woman who loved to dance.

1132
01:07:56,680 --> 01:07:59,720
A woman who loved hard.
A woman who loved her daughter.

1133
01:08:00,400 --> 01:08:02,120
A woman who still wanted to be
here.

1134
01:08:02,760 --> 01:08:07,400
That is who Perdisha Para
Champion was affectionately

1135
01:08:07,400 --> 01:08:09,800
known by her parents and friends
as Para.

1136
01:08:10,720 --> 01:08:13,240
And that is why this story hurts
the way it does.

1137
01:08:14,160 --> 01:08:17,399
Not simply because she died, but
because, according to her

1138
01:08:17,399 --> 01:08:21,960
mother, she died while still
trying, still speaking, still

1139
01:08:21,960 --> 01:08:26,520
communicating, still resisting,
still telling the people around

1140
01:08:26,520 --> 01:08:29,960
her that something was wrong,
still trying to remain in her

1141
01:08:29,960 --> 01:08:33,359
own life.
That is what makes this story

1142
01:08:33,359 --> 01:08:37,080
unbearable, and that is what
makes it impossible to file away

1143
01:08:37,080 --> 01:08:41,319
neatly under inevitable loss.
This is why Sophia wants the

1144
01:08:41,319 --> 01:08:44,479
world to hear what happened.
This is why she came back to

1145
01:08:44,479 --> 01:08:47,399
Virtua Mount Holly and said what
she said in front of that

1146
01:08:47,399 --> 01:08:50,240
building.
This is why she spoke to our

1147
01:08:50,240 --> 01:08:53,000
investigator and producer JC
Reedberg.

1148
01:08:53,560 --> 01:08:56,439
This is why she wants pressure.
This is why she wants

1149
01:08:56,439 --> 01:08:59,200
accountability.
Because in her mind, this was

1150
01:08:59,200 --> 01:09:02,080
not just tragedy.
This was failure.

1151
01:09:02,520 --> 01:09:05,720
This was preventable.
This was a daughter being failed

1152
01:09:05,720 --> 01:09:08,840
inside the very place that was
supposed to keep her alive.

1153
01:09:09,800 --> 01:09:14,399
So tonight, remember her name,
Perdisha Para Champion,

1154
01:09:15,120 --> 01:09:18,120
affectionately known by her
parents and friends as Para.

1155
01:09:19,040 --> 01:09:21,760
Remember the mother who says she
watched her daughter fight for

1156
01:09:21,760 --> 01:09:23,920
breath?
Remember the sentence that will

1157
01:09:23,920 --> 01:09:29,000
not leave that room?
Mom, this is way too much air.

1158
01:09:29,359 --> 01:09:31,680
Remember what coded meant in
this story.

1159
01:09:32,800 --> 01:09:35,319
Her heart stopped, They brought
her back.

1160
01:09:36,080 --> 01:09:39,439
It stopped again.
They brought her back again,

1161
01:09:39,840 --> 01:09:46,160
again and again, four times.
Remember that her mother says

1162
01:09:46,160 --> 01:09:49,359
she was left fighting for air.
Remember that the death

1163
01:09:49,359 --> 01:09:52,640
certificate points to shock and
acute respiratory failure with

1164
01:09:52,640 --> 01:09:55,760
hypoxia.
Remember that public complaints

1165
01:09:55,760 --> 01:10:00,160
surrounding Virtua Mount Holly
have described long waits, poor

1166
01:10:00,160 --> 01:10:04,520
communication, dismissive
treatment and care that too

1167
01:10:04,520 --> 01:10:09,200
often feels inconsistent.
Remember that the larger Virtua

1168
01:10:09,200 --> 01:10:12,800
network has already faced public
scrutiny over discrimination,

1169
01:10:13,080 --> 01:10:16,920
consent and safety.
And remember that somewhere,

1170
01:10:16,920 --> 01:10:21,440
right now, a little girl named
Ava is growing up in the absence

1171
01:10:21,440 --> 01:10:23,280
of the mother who was supposed
to be here.

1172
01:10:24,120 --> 01:10:27,680
This story is not over.
The legal process is not over,

1173
01:10:28,280 --> 01:10:32,200
the questions are not over, the
grief is not over, and the

1174
01:10:32,200 --> 01:10:35,960
accountability in Sophia
Shannon's eyes has not even

1175
01:10:35,960 --> 01:10:38,880
begun.
So let me say this as clearly as

1176
01:10:38,880 --> 01:10:42,440
I can.
If you are a Black Blogger, a

1177
01:10:42,440 --> 01:10:46,880
Black podcaster, a black
journalist, a Black creator, a

1178
01:10:46,880 --> 01:10:50,680
black platform, or simply a
human being who still believes

1179
01:10:50,680 --> 01:10:54,640
justice should mean something,
support the family of Perdisha

1180
01:10:54,640 --> 01:10:57,640
Para Champion.
Share this story.

1181
01:10:57,960 --> 01:11:01,760
Share this episode.
Write about Para Talk about Para

1182
01:11:02,360 --> 01:11:06,560
Post her pictures, say her name.
Tell people what Sophia says

1183
01:11:06,560 --> 01:11:10,240
happened to her daughter.
And when you do, use the hashtag

1184
01:11:10,840 --> 01:11:15,080
Justice for Para.
Justice for para on TikTok.

1185
01:11:15,560 --> 01:11:20,160
Justice for para on Instagram.
Justice for para on YouTube.

1186
01:11:20,640 --> 01:11:25,160
Justice for para on Facebook.
Justice for para on Threads,

1187
01:11:25,560 --> 01:11:31,240
Justice for para on X, Justice
for para in blogs, Justice for

1188
01:11:31,240 --> 01:11:36,640
para in podcasts, Justice for
para in headlines, Justice for

1189
01:11:36,640 --> 01:11:39,440
para anywhere.
Human beings still have the

1190
01:11:39,440 --> 01:11:43,120
courage to care because this
beautiful young woman is gone

1191
01:11:43,120 --> 01:11:46,720
too soon and her family should
not have to carry this story

1192
01:11:46,720 --> 01:11:50,160
alone.
If you support justice, support

1193
01:11:50,160 --> 01:11:53,120
this family.
If you believe black women

1194
01:11:53,120 --> 01:11:55,840
deserve to be heard, support
this family.

1195
01:11:56,520 --> 01:11:59,560
If you believe Ava deserves
answers about what happened to

1196
01:11:59,560 --> 01:12:03,360
her mother, support this family.
Share this story.

1197
01:12:04,120 --> 01:12:08,320
Share any story about Para and
make sure the world sees the

1198
01:12:08,320 --> 01:12:13,480
words justice for Para.
If this episode moved something

1199
01:12:13,480 --> 01:12:16,680
in you, please share it.
Leave a five star review

1200
01:12:16,680 --> 01:12:20,240
wherever you listen.
Every review helps the algorithm

1201
01:12:20,240 --> 01:12:22,040
push these stories to more
people.

1202
01:12:22,680 --> 01:12:25,920
More reviews mean more families
get heard, more stories get

1203
01:12:25,920 --> 01:12:29,320
told, and more black women stop
being treated like footnotes in

1204
01:12:29,320 --> 01:12:31,560
cases that should have begun
with their names.

1205
01:12:32,680 --> 01:12:36,560
This is no tears for black
girls, the cases they ignored.

1206
01:12:37,240 --> 01:12:43,240
I am Samantha Paul, Stay loved,
stay safe, and remember whenever

1207
01:12:43,240 --> 01:12:47,040
you are trapped in a World of
Darkness, never allow fear to

1208
01:12:47,040 --> 01:12:50,440
overwhelm you.
Believe in your inner spirit and

1209
01:12:50,440 --> 01:12:52,880
remind yourself of God's first
words.

1210
01:12:53,320 --> 01:12:54,240
Let there be light.