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Attorney Faults Wake Forest Baptist For Vocal Tirade

A local hospital is under fire for an incident involving one of its volunteers, who launched a vocal attack on hospital visitors. Lawyers for the victims are faulting the medical center for its screening process.  

The incident happened two months ago at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.

Donna Lorraine Bridger was captured on cell-phone video in an expletive-laced, racially-tinged tirade directed at Isaiah Baskins and his family.

Baskins posted the video on YouTube, where it's been viewed hundreds of thousand of times.

Wake Forest fired Bridger, and apologized for what happened. 

An attorney for Baskins says the incident never should have happened in the first place.

In a news conference Wednesday, South-Carolina based attorney Justin Bamberg blasted the hospital's screening procedure, and alleged they never properly checked Bridger's background.

He also suggested that Bridger referenced Donald Trump in her tirade. Trump has been accused of stoking racial tensions.

Bridger is scheduled to go to trial Friday on a simple assault charge.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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