Mesquite registered nurse in Dallas fired after ignoring black woman in labor amid claims of racial disparities in healthcare.
A registered nurse (RN) in Texas has been fired following video going viral showing the ‘white’ RN seemingly ignoring a black woman in active labor, crying and screaming out in pain.
The outed nurse, LaCrista Vaughn, rather than immediately address the distressed expectant mother, Karrie Jones, continues asking questions about her medical history while the laboring woman grows increasingly restless from the excruciating pain amid delayed medical care as she waited to be admitted.
Expectant woman’s mother, Kash secretly filmed unfolding scene of woman in labor being ignored
The incident which took place at Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, Texas has since led to outrage amid claims of racial disparities in healthcare and demands that the involved nurse be fired.
The family claims in a series of videos shared on TikTok that staff kept her in the waiting room for more than 30 minutes, and the baby was born 12 minutes after she was finally moved, PeopleMag reported.
The unfolding scene, captured on viral TikTok video led to hospital officials terminating LaCrista Vaughn’s tenure at the medical facility over the weekend.
The video, posted by Jones’ mother Kash (@kashman2814) on Friday has now been viewed more than 23 million times along with over 161,000 comments.
In the clip, Jones is seen doubled over in a wheelchair as a nurse asks admission questions. Her mother wrote in the text overlay that the staff kept her daughter in the waiting area for ‘more than 30 mins,’ and that Jones’ son was born just ’12 min later.’ ‘The delivery was AWFUL,’ the overlay continued, while the caption accused a ‘deathly charge nurse’ of choosing ‘paperwork over life.’
At one point in the video, Jones screamed that the baby is ‘in her a–,’ prompting her mother to ask the nurse, ‘Ya’ll treat all your patients like this or just the Black ones?’
There needs to be awareness brought to this.
This black woman is screaming in agonizing pain and instead of taking her straight to a room they had her in the waiting room for more than 30 minutes. Her son was born 12 minutes after this video cut off. @dallasregional this is… pic.twitter.com/W4grRJ405V
— Yanna Thee Astrologer 🩷 (@AVenusianVirgo) November 14, 2025
Would expectant mom have received this degree of indifference and lack of care had she been white?
The footage showed Jones coming out of the wheelchair and attempting to turn herself over as she appeared to be actively giving birth. In another clip, Kash recorded from inside her purse and captured her daughter pushing and crying out in pain.
Her mother asked, ‘Are y’all for real right now? Does she have to give birth in a chair?’ Nurse Vaughn responds that she ‘can’t take her upstairs,’ leading Jones’ mom to question why staff would ‘take a chance of infections and her having a baby in this chair.’
In a follow-up video, Kash recounted what happened from the moment they arrived. She claimed Jones called ahead, and the family expected staff to be ready, but a nurse outside the emergency room told them, ‘I’m sorry, this is for ambulances only,’ before directing them to the front entrance.
Inside, Kash said she begged for a wheelchair after telling staff her daughter was in active labor. She alleged she was told to look for one by the vending machines before a receptionist eventually brought it out, and a police officer helped her get Jones from the car, where she found her daughter on her hands and knees saying, “It’s in my a–.”
Kash said she returned inside moments later to find her daughter screaming that the baby was coming while staff insisted they “can’t do anything until she signed the papers.”
White nurse ignoring black woman in labor about to give birth leads to outrage
Kash said the lack of urgency left her stunned. ‘Do not go to this hospital,’ she said in her follow-up. “They do not care about Black women or their babies,” she claimed in her video, as commenters online call the experience an example of medical racism.
The emergence of the video left commentators gobsmacked at the degree of nonchalance and indifference of the attending RN.
Commented one user on Threads: ‘We got her name! Make her famous for her unempathetic, life threatening, nonchalant negligent, and jeopardizing work ethic, lack there of, to a full term pregnant Black mother. Yes, it’s about race. If you see the video you’ll know. Also, we get to see why black women lose their lives and their babies during childbirth. She needs to be fired! May the story not cease until there’s justice.’.
Stated another, ‘The disparity in quality of care for non-white folks is staggering. ESPECIALLY when it comes to women. If you only look at mothers who died in childbirth, just that one statistic is enough to blow your mind.
‘Black women are 3x more likely to die in childbirth. Why??? Because the medical field still treats women in general as though their own and complaints are made up, but specifically the less melanated women.The medial field HAS to do better.’
While another user countered, ‘Everyone is quick to go for the race card, but Everyone completely ignores systemic healthcare worker burn out. Constantly working with unsafe ratios, high acuity nurses running away from bedside in droves. This is not racism, this is the sign of american Healthcare collapsing.’
Responding to the video, a Dallas Regional Medical Center spokesperson, stated, ‘At Dallas Regional Medical Center, the safety, dignity, and well-being of our patients are always our highest priorities. We are committed to providing compassionate, high-quality care to every person who comes through our doors, and we are reviewing this situation to understand what occurred. Due to patient privacy laws, we cannot share further details at this time, but our focus remains on ensuring that every patient receives the attentive, respectful care they deserve.’
