Black Lives Matter Protesters Block Bridge During Child's Medical Emergency

An ambulance had to be dispatched to pick up a child on the I-40 Bridge during the Black Lives Matter protest Sunday night.

Protesters began their march downtown and eventually made their [way] onto the bridge, which caused it to be shut down for several hours. As a result, the child’s parents were stuck on the bridge, and they could not drive the child to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.

His parents were worried about his condition and considered it an emergency, so they called an ambulance. Bobby Harrell was the paramedic on that call.

"We were escorted by the Crittenden County Sheriff's Office up the wrong way on the interstate to pick up the child out of the traffic," Harrell told FOX13.

Harrell and his medical team picked up the boy and detoured through West Memphis onto I-55. They eventually made it to the hospital for treatment.

The emergency worker told FOX13 the patient was stable the entire time, but his condition could have gotten worse because the protest delayed the transport.

"When you have someone in dire need of medical attention, I don't know if there is a cause great enough to hinder someone from getting to the hospital to get medical care," Harrell said outside his home in Arkansas.