Jerome White, a 35-year-old father with severe asthma, died after suffering a breathing crisis outside Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, in June 2020. A police report cited by NJ.com says hospital staff allegedly dismissed officers’ concerns, with a nurse reportedly claiming that White often attended and “pretends to be sick”; the case raises serious questions about emergency-care decisions and treatment of patients in distress.

White had initially been treated and discharged, but collapsed near the emergency department as officers tried to obtain help. He was taken back inside after his lips turned blue and he stopped breathing, suffered oxygen-deprivation brain damage and died 16 days later; his family later received a private $15 million wrongful-death settlement, with no admission of wrongdoing.