Struggle & Resistance Achievement & Excellence

April 2016

Kira Johnson, 39, a multilingual college-educated woman, died on April 12, 2016, hours after delivering her second son by C-section at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Her husband, Charles Johnson IV, spent nine hours pleading for doctors to address obvious signs of internal bleeding. A nurse told him Kira was 'not a priority.' She was taken to surgery 10 hours after giving birth, when it was too late; she had more than five liters of blood in her abdomen. Charles Johnson subsequently founded 4Kira4Moms, lobbying for maternal health legislation. The case became a nationally known example of how dismissal of Black women's pain caused preventable deaths.

Events

April 12, 2016
Kira Johnson Dies After Cesarian Section as Hospital Ignores Her Husband's Pleas
Kira Johnson, 39, a multilingual college-educated woman, died on April 12, 2016, hours after delivering her second son by C-section at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Her husband, Charles Johnson IV, spent nine hours pleading for doctors to address obvious signs of internal bleeding. A nurse told him Kira was 'not a priority.' She was taken to surgery 10 hours after giving birth, when it was too late; she had more than five liters of blood in her abdomen. Charles Johnson subsequently founded 4Kira4Moms, lobbying for maternal health legislation. The case became a nationally known example of how dismissal of Black women's pain caused preventable deaths.
April 12, 2016
Kira Johnson Dies After Hospital Ignores Her Husband's Pleas for Hours
Kira Johnson, 39, died on April 12, 2016, hours after delivering her second son at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Her husband Charles Johnson spent nine hours pleading for doctors to address obvious signs of internal bleeding. A nurse told him Kira was 'not a priority.' She died after 10 hours of ignored warnings. Charles Johnson subsequently founded 4Kira4Moms lobbying for maternal health legislation.