Posted on 05/15/2015 5:09:25 AM PDT by lowbridge
An 81-year old North Carolina man with cancer returned home from a six-month hospital stay to an empty refrigerator.
With no food and no assistance, the 115-pound man called 911.
Unable to fend for himself, and with no family in the Fayetteville area, Clarence Blackmon called 911 telling the dispatcher that he needed someone to help him buy food, WTVD reports:
‘I can’t do anything. I can’t go anywhere. I can’t get out of my damn chair,’ Blackmon told the dispatcher, Marilyn Hinson.
An hour and a half later Hinson, along with two officers, showed up at Blackmon’s home – with her supervisor’s permission – with a box of groceries she purchased.
(Excerpt) Read more at rightwingnews.com ...
‘Kindness’ just is. It doesn’t take government or programs or robbing peoples’ hard earned money.
It takes compassion and the opportunity coupled with resources to accomplish it.
Feel-good Story Of The Day.
Seems a true emergency to me. Well done.
when COPS begin airing, I saw two policemen do something similar.
Hospital needs to look at their release procedures.
Good on the dispatcher and officers for helping!
I’ve some questions though,
who took him home?
why they didn’t stop by the market first, on the way to his house? Or alert a friend or neighbor about the food situation?
if he can’t get out and about, does he have a neighbor who can help?
That thought also crossed my mind, along with those questions I posted.
Hovearound?
Hovearound?
First and foremost I APPLAUD this dispatcher and her department for a job WELL DONE! A man weighing less than a normal teenager has little reserves and needs food.
As alternatives though, they range from cost to charity. Most taxi companies will pick-up groceries and many grocery stores will bag a call-in order for such a pick-up. At the other end, there are probably the local variant of “Meals on Wheels” and various churches that do this kind of charitable work.
As others have pointed out, there was an obvious disconnect at the hospital release. The patient either gave the wrong impression about his support system or the hospital failed in its duty.
Cabbage and beets? Hasn’t he suffered enough?
Just kidding, good on the dispatcher and the cops involved.
Although, to be fair, more people will do kind things when they know they’re being filmed.
He should not have had to call 911. The hospital case workers should have handled all this. They are a very lazy bunch of worthless workers. Crisis Unit is what it is called.
They just dumped my invalid 57 yr old brother on my sister’s loveseat with out making the proper arrangements, which would have been a Nursing Home. She has Scoliosis and a husband with MD. Plus works. No bedroom for him. She had no way to take care of an invalid who could not even go to the RR by himself.
"Blackmon will soon have a home health nurse who will check on him twice a week, but Hinson gave him her number telling Blackmon to call her if he needed anything,
He is receiving regular cancer treatment, yet somehow his case fell through the cracks.
Is this a result of ObamaCare (ACA)cuts in social services staff at hospitals? Prior to discharge, a hospital social worker is supposed to evaluate each case for special needs like this frail, cancer-ridden elderly gentleman.
My gut roils in anger at the short shrift our elderly face...while our borders remain wide open to illegal grifters.
Kudos to the folks who stepped up immediately to ease this poor man's suffering.
One of the advancements provided to us by Obamacare is that hospitals get nicked on their government reimbursements if a patient is readmitted for the same ailment. It is to their financial benefit for the patient to die before he gets readmitted.
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The oncologist and the hospital would both have social workers. I wonder if he didn’t speak up? I was in this situation when I first had surgery, 8 months ago. I actually had cans of food, but was too bad off to get to them. I went hungry for a week or so, but I was able to at least get cereal after a week.
During this time, I had home nursing care coming every other day.
My case worker at the hospital was just WORTHLESS. I finally had to rally and arrange all my care myself. My hospital bed, my home care, everything.
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