I saw this on the Today show the other day, and what I found even more vile than the lack of help was the way the male 911 operator was conversing with that woman. Dude really deserved a good kick to the head.

The husband/boyfriend should come out of this a very wealthy man. That's the least they can do for him and his family.

Peace

Dead Due To Negligence! This Is Healthcare, American Style!

What’s with health care in the United States? First there was that fiasco at America’s premier health care facility, Walter Reed Army Medical Center where servicemen and Iraqi war veterans were treated in an outrageously shoddy manner. Signs of neglect were everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses etc reflecting gross negligence and inefficiency. Thanks to the messy bureaucratic battlefield which is nearly as chaotic as the real battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

And then the Willowbrook hospital's fate is uncertain as it prepares for a final review by federal officials to determine whether it should retain crucial funding.

And now the high profile lapse at King-Harbor, formerly known as King/Drew, which has been dogged by troubles almost since its inception.

The patient, Edith Isabel Rodriguez, was pronounced dead at 2:17 a.m., the victim of "inexcusable" indifference by staff at King-Harbor, county health officials later acknowledged.

America's health care system has taken a beating. Few seem to care. If Americans can’t look after Americans, then let others do the job. Outsource Medicare.

Sadly, neglect cannot always be attributed to overcrowding and lack of funding.....my Mother was in the hospital numerous times in the months before her death, each time at the same hospital, but not always the same level of care.

On one occasion I could hear the 'party' going on at the nurses station, but I could not get them to even bring me the dry sheets so I could change her bed.....till the passing house keeping lady saw me crying and brought me the sheets on the QT.

They would not even give her a Tylenol for pain, even though the doctor had ordered it 'as needed' ........their reasoning? The doctor had ordered it for temperature, and hers was normal.

I don't understand what gets into people sometimes........



[edit on 14-6-2007 by frayed1]

What I don't understand is why wasn't this woman made a priority? I find it hard to believe that everyone in that ER was dying. Wouldn't it be common sense to take this woman over a cut finger or broken arm?

Stories like that make me wonder if half the population have no souls. I suppose if you see death and horrors every day you'll become a tad immune to it but that was totally callous. I hope they're named and shamed.

I find it interesting that people are mad at the janitor(or quoting the great dave chapelle custodial engineer) but not the person filming. Why should the janitor put down his mop while someone isn't expected to put down their Video Camera. There is a reason why this guy is a janitor and it is probably because -at the MOST- he only has a high school diploma. It amazes me that people wanted the Janitor to put his mop down and do what...Paraphrasing the great Jerry Seinfeld, "you think the janitor would have a nack for medicine" (when elaine let krammer try to fix her neck)

Calling 911 from a hospital is like going to a nice restaurant and calling to have a pizza delivered. Odds are it's a hoax.
Not to mention if the trend starts of 911 sending out ambulance to people who are already in the hospitals that means that people who at their homes will not get help as quick.

The questions that i would ask are:

1) Why Doctor and Nurses ignore her?
2) If they don't have a reason to ignore her, how hard is their union going to protect them?
3) This was a socialized hospital(same with the military hospital) so why do people think if the whole medical system is socialized that this won't be the norm instead of the exception?

This really gets me man why would doctors sworn to save lifes just let a woman die I tell you this is wrong on every level why did none of the other people go to get help? no one may ever know If I was there I would have grabbed a doctor and forced him to give medical care Damn the consequences leveed against me from assault as long as that woman lived
who cares times like that call for action and no one acted we should ask our selfs why

I would chrge all of you to act if you see a situation like this going down DO something anything who cares as long as it is something

I am sad to here of her death and as for the police im in the MP corps and I can tell you that the cop is libal for her health if he did have her in costady plane and simple he is responcable for her death and should be arrested and charged with man slaughter at the least just like I would if I let somehing like that happin to an inmate.

this is crazy 100% madness and I for one am going to call my congressman and ask wtf is going on in CA I would incourge you all insted of talking about it do somehting about it Like call your congressman.

Would anyone have more information about this incident? I would like to know what the hospital's reasoning had been for not taking the woman. My assumption is that they were either understaffed or didn't have enough rooms.

This reminds me of my visit to the ER last year, when I was in a car accident. I drove myself there and waited in the waiting room, and while sitting there, a guy across from me had blood squirting from his ear, from a fight. It just kept squirting on the floor, and he had to wait there while they found a room for him. He went in before me, but we were in the waiting room for a good 3-4 hours.

[edit on 14-6-2007 by DJMessiah]

Originally posted by DJMessiah
This reminds me of my visit to the ER last year, when I was in a car accident. I drove myself there and waited in the waiting room, and while sitting there, a guy across from me had blood squirting from his ear, from a fight. It just kept squirting on the floor, and he had to wait there while they found a room for him. He went in before me, but we were in the waiting room for a good 3-4 hours.

[edit on 14-6-2007 by DJMessiah]

you were in a car accident...and DROVE yourself to the ER room?

Anyway, I think healthcare needs to become fully capitalistic. Things always run alot better when some guy is working on turning a big profit.

Captialism is where a guy turns a huge profit after providing a service. Socialism is where a guy turns a huge profit, then provides a service.

Well now.

A public hospital located in an area overrun by illegal immigrants who abuse and don't pay for hospital services is having problems with funding and maintaining an adequate level of quality healthcare.

There's a shocker.

You guys have no idea what County Hospital is like in LA. It's war zone. I had a very good friend of mine do her nursing internship there, and she told me (and this was in the early 1990s) that the hallways are lined with people bleeding, dying, giving birth, etc.

She said that it's a madhouse, that she often felt like she was on the battlefield in a war. Gunshot, knife wounds, etc. This is where people go who have no insurance, who have no other place to go, they cannot refuse anyone.

I am not, in the least, surprised by this story. I'm just surprised it took this long to make it into the media. Afterall, it happened a MONTH ago.

I have to ask myself, who's pushing this now and why?

It seems the 911 call made the difference........that is, it made this one incident stand out from others that have occured in the same ER.

Some other questions answered from the original article....

Dr. Roger Peeks, the hospital's chief medical officer, was placed on "ordered absence" Monday and replaced on an interim basis....

A security camera may have recorded the scene but the tape was not being made public because of state laws on patient privacy.....

....the hospital violated requirements to medically screen the woman. The person who failed to arrange the examination resigned......

Some of those responsible are feeling some heat.....

This is not the first time something like this has happened. I have no faith in the health care system. This is just horrible but I don't know all the facts as yet. I wonder what the janitor was thinking, seeeing the woman vomiting blood and cleaning around her. What was going through his mind?

you would think by the rection of the docters and nurses that the woman had ebola. wow once more this is crazy when are we as a people I am talking about americans going to wake up and do something about crapy health care??

[edit on 14-6-2007 by ashnomadonte]

Of course you can charge the civilians who just walked by, they are not medical experts or anything but the least they could do is go find a nurse or a doctor. Maybe if few of them would talk to the same doctor they'd realize that there is something terribly wrong with the patient, or maybe they would've crossed paths with that one individual doctor who would've done something, you never know.

So should they go through the video and charge all doctors and nurses with a crime?
Should other bystanders be charged? And what about the security guard or cop that was trying to arrest her? 911 operator's?
This is scary.
Ive been to the emergency room before because of a severe pain in my back and I swear it took 4 or 5 hours before I was seen. What if I was having a heart attack.
Imagine how many people die this way evry year and we never hear about it.
How surreal this must have been for the family.

Get used to stuff like this folks. This is the New World Order in operation. If you have money or influence you are a citizen. If you are poor or ordinary you can go suck.

I suppose you are aware but I will mention it anyway - the USA is the world's ONLY industrialised country without universal health care. This is because capitalism controls the USA, not the people.

Doncha find it interesting that the closest socialist/communist country to the USA (Cuba) has what is regarded as the world's BEST health care? Or has the US censor kept that little tidbit of information out of the USA public domain? Compared to Cuba, the USA is just a heartless, profit-obsessive, humanitarian backwater. No wonder the USA feels the need to crush tiny Cuba - it shows the USA for the falsehood that it is..

[edit on 14/6/07 by hippichick]

Was she illegal or not?

IMO if legal the doctors and nurses should be prosecuted.

But I don't think anyone should pay legally or financially for someone that came into this country illegally. Sounds hard but they shouldn't be here in the first place.

Originally posted by AndrewTB
Was she illegal or not?

IMO if legal the doctors and nurses should be prosecuted.

But I don't think anyone should pay legally or financially for someone that came into this country illegally. Sounds hard but they shouldn't be here in the first place.

Well IMO if the person is human you should help.

As far as your logic goes us americans are illegal and shouldnt be here.