{"id":124618,"date":"2026-02-06T01:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124618\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T01:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:18:09","slug":"our-forgotten-borough-medical-neglect-leads-to-tragedy-for-widowed-bronx-father-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124618\/","title":{"rendered":"OUR FORGOTTEN BOROUGH | Medical neglect leads to tragedy for widowed Bronx father \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruce McIntyre remembers the day he and his fianc\u00e9e Amber Rose Isaac decided they wanted to start a family. They walked into a bookstore after having a date night in August 2019 when Amber spotted a children\u2019s book called, \u201cRap ABC,\u201d with a baby Kendrick Lamar and baby Tupac inside the cover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amber began reading the book aloud, then looked to Bruce and insisted they buy the book right then and there for their future child.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

When Bruce watched Amber take a pregnancy test in September 2019 and it came out positive, it felt like their dreams were coming true.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was very excited to be a mom,\u201d Bruce told the Bronx Times. \u201cIt was something she was looking forward to most in life.\u201d
\n\"\"Amber Rose Isaac during her pregnancy with her fiance, Bruce McIntyre. Photo courtesy Bruce McIntyre.\n<\/p>\n

The couple never would have expected that just seven months later, Amber would die giving birth to her son Elias via an emergency cesarean section at Montefiore Einstein \u2013 just one day after Amber tweeted that she couldn\u2019t wait to write a tell-all about her \u201cincompetent doctors<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hospital hostility<\/p>\n

According to Bruce, as soon as Amber\u2019s gynecologist at Montefiore began to piece together that she was Black, pregnant and unmarried, their once normal doctor-patient relationship began to shift.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The doctor would ask the couple questions such as: Were the two going to get married? How long had they known each other? Did Bruce have any other kids?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would make these faces towards me and smack her lips,\u201d Bruce said. \u201cIt really felt from that point on \u2013 from the very first visit \u2013 she wasn\u2019t going to be giving Amber the attentive care that she deserved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Months went by, and Bruce noticed Amber\u2019s health deteriorating. She had massive headaches, trouble breathing, and dizziness, but said the doctors brushed off their concerns as regular pregnancy symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the time Amber reached her second trimester, Bruce said they began weighing their options and decided to get a midwife so she would have an advocate when speaking with her doctors.<\/p>\n

The midwife then got Amber to get bloodwork done to figure out what was happening to the typically healthy 26-year-old. A day later, she called the couple back with surprising news \u2013 she couldn\u2019t take them on as a client because Amber was a high-risk patient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through their student midwife, in late March of 2020, the couple learned that in December of 2020, Amber\u2019s platelet count<\/a> was in the low 90s \u2013 a healthy measure of if blood clots normally is typically above 150.<\/p>\n

Bruce says they decided to act quickly. The couple made a complaint and transferred to Montefiore Einstein.\n<\/p>\n

On April 17, 2020, Amber was called in by Montefiore Einstein to get updated bloodwork, according to Bruce.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Yet, when the couple arrived for the appointment, they were denied services and asked to come back later that day. When they showed up for a second time, a receptionist told the couple that Amber still couldn\u2019t be seen because the gynecologist had not submitted the paperwork to the lab.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Amber and Bruce\u2019s third attempt to see a doctor, they finally got her blood drawn.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

That next morning, the hospital called the couple and said Amber needed to go in for treatment immediately, but that it would only take a few hours.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to all the information we were finding out, Amber was scared and needed people who were going to be there to advocate for her,\u201d Bruce said. So when the couple showed up to the hospital, they asked if anyone could go up with her.<\/p>\n

Because this was during Covid-19, hospitals weren\u2019t allowing any family members, midwives or doulas to go inside with expecting mothers.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Amber was scared to death that something would happen to her, Bruce said. But hospital staff didn\u2019t allow him, or her mother \u2013 who worked at the very same hospital for 25 years \u2013 to go with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bruce continued to plead, he didn\u2019t want her to go by herself after all the neglect they faced. Yet, the front desk sent security to confront him.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cShe says, \u2018Okay, Mr. Baby Daddy, you need to calm down. We need you to sit in the lobby. Matter of fact, you need to go wait outside in your car and wait for your partner to text you with updates,\u2019\u2019\u2019 Bruce recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a number of tests the doctor had an update, Amber had HELLP Syndrome<\/a> \u2013 a rare, life-threatening pregnancy complication affecting the blood and liver. Her platelet count, which was supposed to be over 150, was now in the low 40s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bruce got the text \u2013 the doctors were going to have to induce labor prematurely by 40 days.\n<\/p>\n

An unthinkable outcome\u00a0
\n\"\"Amber Rose Isaac and her fiance Bruce McIntyre. Amber was pregnant in 2020 when she faced extreme medical neglect at Montefiore Moses and Montefiore Einstein. Photo courtesy Bruce McIntyre.<\/p>\n

As the doctors rushed Amber into emergency surgery, Bruce said he tried to remain positive for her. She was crying and having a tough time accepting that this was the reality of her first pregnancy. This wasn\u2019t how she thought it would be like.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bruce assured Amber, this would only take 20 to 30 minutes and then they would get to go home with their baby.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling Amber, Everything\u2019s going to be okay. These people are going to take care of you, because that\u2019s all they keep telling us. And she kept repeating, \u2018All three of us are going home,\u2019\u201d Bruce said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bruce kept his eyes glued to the window of the double doors as he watched doctors run in and out. He heard the intercom go off; all emergency personnel were called to Amber\u2019s room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No one ever checked in on Bruce, he said, or gave him any updates on Amber. All but one Black nurse, who assured him that his son was okay.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Soon after, Bruce says he slowly began to see doctors leaving Amber\u2019s room, one by one. They were all white doctors, he added, who said that everything would be okay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust from that, I was getting a little bit of hope that she was okay,\u2019\u2019 Bruce said. \u201cBecause why would you say that to someone who\u2019s losing the love of their life.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Then Bruce saw a wave of Black doctors who left the room with disgust on their faces. All with their heads down, avoiding eye contact with him.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

A nurse then urged Bruce to join the rest of their family when the head surgeon, whom he had never seen before, spoke to their family. Amber didn\u2019t make it; she bled out on the surgical table and was dead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her family was in disbelief until the surgeon rolled in her body, which they covered in a sheet.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an image that\u2019s going to be stuck with me forever,\u2019\u2019 Bruce said. \u201cI\u2019ve never experienced anything like that before.\u2019\u2019\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Hospital staff urged Bruce to go home and get some sleep.\u00a0
\n\"\"Bruce McIntyre with his son Elias at the hospital. His fiance, Amber Rose Isaac, died while giving birth because doctors found out last minute that she had HELLP syndrome. Photo courtesy of Bruce McIntyre.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI woke up around eight o\u2019clock that morning, turning over and wanting to tell Amber about this very bad dream I had. Then, reality sunk in,\u2019\u2019 Bruce said. \u201cAnd then I thought, I need to get my son out of that hospital. I do not trust those people around him.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Bruce went home, but returned to the hospital the next day to pick up his son. Yet, he said, hospital staff refused to discharge his son into his custody because Amber was no longer alive to attest that he was the biological father.<\/p>\n

His son Elias, was released into the custody of Amber\u2019s mother, Renita Isaac, who was living with the couple. It then took a DNA test and two years of going through surrogate court to be listed as his birth father.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In April of 2022, Bruce and Renita filed a wrongful death lawsuit<\/a> against Montefiore and listed several doctors. The litigation is still ongoing, and a court date has yet to be set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Bruce McIntyre and his son Elias poses with a silhouette of fiance Amber Rose Isaac who died in 2020 giving birth to their son Elias at Montefiore Einstein. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

Montefiore declined to comment on Amber\u2019s case in an email to the Bronx Times, citing pending litigation, HIPAA regulations and patient privacy rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elias is now five years old, and the spitting image of his mother, Bruce said. He\u2019s happy, cheerful and a bright light in their family. He knows Amber would have been an amazing and loving mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Black woman, it doesn\u2019t matter what your status is or what your accolades are. They\u2019re going to treat you like you\u2019re uneducated, they\u2019re going to treat you like you\u2019re undeserving.\u2019\u2019 Bruce said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe followed all the rules and all of the protocols and none of it mattered at all. It just came down to her skin color.\u2019\u2019\u00a0
\n\"\"Bruce McIntyre at his fiance\u2019s grave. Amber Rose Isaac died in 2020 while she gave birth to her son Elias at Montefiore Einstein. Photo courtesy Bruce McIntyre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce McIntyre remembers the day he and his fianc\u00e9e Amber Rose Isaac decided they wanted to start a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[54237,54238,128,54239,7771,54240,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-124618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-albert-einstein-college-of-medicine-montefiore-health-system","9":"tag-amber-rose-isaac","10":"tag-bronx","11":"tag-bruce-mcintyre","12":"tag-montefiore","13":"tag-montefiore-moses","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-the-bronx","18":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","19":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}