The Medical Record Emergency

File this under, "You get more with honey than with vinegar" or "Former-Chicago alderman goes wild:"

The fracas unfolded in the emergency room's waiting area.

Tillman had taken her aunt, Mabel Barker, to the emergency room the previous evening. Frustrated by an overnight stay that she said yielded little treatment, Tillman requested the medical records when hospital officials discharged Barker.

She said she hoped to take her aunt to another hospital for treatment. Tillman said she was told the records were not immediately available. Barker received the same reply when she asked, Tillman said.

Jackson Hospital policy requires that requests for medical records be made in writing, spokesman Peter Frohmader said.

Unfazed, Tillman said she continued to request the records. A nursing supervisor alerted hospital security. They in turn notified police officers when they could not subdue Tillman, according to police and hospital officials.

"She was very disorderly with hospital security, and they asked her several times to leave the building," Cook said.

Tillman disputed such characterizations, saying she was mindful of not upsetting her aunt.

"I don't think I was screaming. I didn't go like crazy, crazy," Tillman said. "My only concern was to get some treatment for my aunt."

Tillman said she was arrested and put in "leg chains and shackles."

"It was really something," Tillman said. "They did the real police thing."

Ms. Tillman learned an important lesson: never, ever mess with a nursing supervisor.

-Wes