How deep-rooted medical bias creates deadly consequences for addiction patients

In bodycam footage released by the Milwaukie Police Department, 26-year-old Jean Descamps can be seen in a hospital bed at the Providence Milwaukie Hospital emergency room in Milwaukie, Ore., in December 2023. Soon after he was discharged by the hospital, Descamps died from drugs already in his system. Milwaukie Police Department/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

On a cold December night in 2023, the staff at Providence Milwaukie Hospital in Milwaukie, Ore., called local police. They wanted help getting one of their patients, a 26-year-old man named Jean Descamps, out of the emergency room.

"He's been evaluated medically. There's no medical problems for him," a member of the hospital team, who NPR has not been able to identify, told police. The moment was captured on an officer's body camera.

Health Trump administration extends opioid emergency as fentanyl deaths drop Records show the hospital's medical staff believed Descamps — emaciated, covered in feces, and often unresponsive — was experiencing symptoms of chronic street drug use, a leading cause of death for young Americans.

After Descamps arrived in an ambulance earlier that day, hospital staff cleaned him up and administered naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses. But now they wanted him gone. "He's not thriving chronically, but there's no medical reason for him to be here anymore," one hospital staffer can be heard saying.

Video released by the Milwaukie Police Department shows Descamps sprawled in a hospital bed, his body limp, moaning and drooling, while medical staff stood nearby. After determining Descamps was too unwell to spend the night in jail, police officers challenged the hospital's decision to discharge him.

"He can't be on his own," one officer said. "Why is he being released? We have no place to take him."

"A bus station is fine," a hospital worker replied. Another member of the hospital staff told police Descamps was faking the severity of his illness: "It's not really a medical problem, it's malingering."

Officers eventually complied, rolling Descamps' limp body in a wheelchair into the dark parking lot, where they covered him with a blanket against the winter cold. Police who gathered around Descamps can be heard voicing fear for his safety.

In video footage released by the Milwaukie Police Department, an officer can be seen rolling Descamps in a wheelchair to exit the hospital emergency room. "Do you feel at all comfortable with anything that's going on right now?" one police officer asked. Another officer answered, "No." Milwaukie Police Department/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

"Do you feel at all comfortable with anything that's going on right now?" one police officer asked. Another officer answered, "No."

Their fears proved justified. A short time after being discharged, Descamps would be dead of an overdose from street drugs already in his system. A spokesman for Providence Milwaukie Hospital declined NPR's repeated requests for an interview about Descamps' case and didn't respond to detailed questions about his treatment.

In a statement issued to the media after Descamps' death, the hospital expressed regret and acknowledged the care he received was inadequate. "In this case, we fell short of our goal of providing safe, reliable, compassionate care to our patient," it said.

But in interviews with more than a dozen doctors, scientists, federal officials and addiction activists, along with a review of research and government data, NPR found that what happened that night in Oregon is part of a troubling national pattern.

National 'Not dead but ... not OK.' As fentanyl kills fewer people, survivors need help People with serious alcohol or drug addiction in the U.S. regularly go to doctor's offices, clinics and hospitals, only to leave after receiving insufficient or no treatment , often with devastating consequences.

"I think we should be outraged every single time someone dies from any condition that has treatment available that someone isn't getting," said Dr. Judy Chertok, who treats addiction patients and teaches medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "We would not allow, as a society, people with heart attacks to come to a hospital and not get appropriate treatment. This is as serious as that."

Chertok is among the growing number of critics who say efforts to bring addiction treatment into the mainstream of American medicine have fallen short.

Shots - Health News One doctor's experience shows the battle for the future of addiction medicine Addiction is widespread in the U.S., affecting more than 40 million people, according to the latest federal data released last month . While drug overdose deaths have dropped in recent years, alcohol- and drug-related disorders still kill more than 250,000 people every year. Meanwhile, research shows alcohol-related deaths have doubled over the last 20 years , while nonfatal overdoses from fentanyl are rising.

Despite that toll, the federal data released last month shows that in 2025 more than 80% of people who need help get no medical treatment of any kind for their addiction.

"Much of what I do is scream back at that," Chertok told NPR. "Many who ultimately die from their [addiction-related] illness have had significant contacts with healthcare and social services agencies in the few months leading up to their deaths."

In the case of Jean Descamps on that winter night in Oregon, death came much faster, after Milwaukie police decided to transport him to an emergency behavioral health center in nearby Portland.

On the body camera recording, officers can be heard growing increasingly alarmed by his condition as he sat in the back of a police cruiser. "Hey Jean, hey Jean!" one officer shouted, after searching for signs Descamps was breathing. "Boy, I don't know. Look at his eyes, I don't know."

In bodycam footage released by the Milwaukie Police Department, Descamps is seen in the hospital parking lot, unresponsive to surrounding ...

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