Posted on 06/13/2007 8:44:50 AM PDT by truthkeeper
In the 40 minutes before a woman's death last month at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, two separate callers pleaded with 911 dispatchers to send help because the hospital staff was ignoring her as she writhed on the floor, according to audio recordings of the calls.
"My wife is dying and the nurses don't want to help her out," Jose Prado, the woman's boyfriend, told the 911 dispatcher through an interpreter.
He was calling from a pay phone outside the hospital, his tone increasingly desperate as he described how his 43-year-old girlfriend was spitting up blood.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department dispatcher struggled to make sense of his predicament, then urged him to contact a doctor or nurse.
"Paramedics are not going to pick him up, or pick his wife up, from a hospital, because she's already at one," the dispatcher said.
Eight minutes later, an unidentified woman, apparently another patient, dialed 911 and reached a different dispatcher. After a short debate about whether the call was an emergency, the dispatcher scolded her and insisted that it was not. The 2 1/2 -minute call ended on a hostile note.
"May God strike you too for acting the way you just acted," the frustrated caller told the dispatcher, just before 2 a.m. on May 9.
"No. Negative ma'am, you're the one," the dispatcher responded before disconnecting.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Even the most nuanced triage in the world cannot overcome this tragedy, given that there are almost impossible demands laid upon the emergency rooms everywhere.
“Emergency room care” has come to mean “free care” almost everywhere, for those who cannot, or will not, pay. But in dismissing the really trivial instances, which nine times out of ten could wait for a family doctor or neighborhood clinic in the morning, the chances of a serious but undiagnosed condition being overlooked until too late, rise exponentially.
There are times when “emergency room” care is really, really necessary. But now the emergency room has come to be relied upon as the primary doctor and medical facility.
The quality of mercy is sometimes severely strained.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I went to the emergency room ten years ago for an arm that was obviously infected. I had been bitten by a dog three days before. I knew I was in trouble, but I’m so deadly afraid of anything medical that I waited until it could have been too late. The infection and the swelling was moving up my arm about an inch an hour. I finally got into the hospital in the evening and they made me wait until after midnight. This is a suburban and well-regarded hospital. I’d say their triage needs work. I was afraid that I’d lose my arm. I didn’t, thankfully, but I was not impressed by their speed.
I have two questions about this incident:
1. What is the immigration status of Jose Prado and Edith Isabel Rodriguez?
2. If the statement here is accurate, then why did Mr. Prado lie about his marital status?
If it hadn't been a true emergency involving care for my grandson, I would have been outta there.
The SoCal emergency rooms have gone to hell.
She was an AMERICAN CITIZEN and was treated as if she were less than an animal.
1. What is the immigration status of Jose Prado and Edith Isabel Rodriguez?
2. If the statement here is accurate, then why did Mr. Prado lie about his marital status?
You're right, those are clearly the most important questions about this story. I would also really like to know what Mr. Prado had for lunch that day; I'd say that's maybe number three. Then we can get to the trivialities about why this woman was left on the hospital floor to die.
Edith Isabel Rodriguez was an American as the article says she was born in California.
This nanny-state bullsh!t has to end.
She was an American - you consider it trivial that she was allowed to writhe on the floor in agony with a janitor cleaning the floor around her? That is trivial to you? May you never be at the mercy of another person who evaluates you on some trivial matter as your skin color or name.
Did you read the whole article? She was supposed to be under arrest. If she had been in jail where she belonged, maybe she would have received better treatement.
Did you catch the part about the janitor mopping up the blood around the woman as she writhed on the floor? Unreal.
Sorry. But you can hardly blame the hospital for taking 3 hours when you took 3 days.
Good thread for emergency room horror stories.
A few years ago (on my birthday...sigh), I went to an emergency room for severe flu symptoms — very high (dehydrating fever), disorentation, throat nearly swollen shut, the works (this was honest to goodness flu, not a cold). I sat there for ten hours in agony. I heard things that made my hair curl about other patients they were ignoring, some of them elderly. When it finally became apparent to me that I wasn’t going to be treated, regardless, I left (I won’t go into the gorey details of that hour ride home). When I saw my own doctor she was horrified...
They charged me for “treatment” of course. I fought it and lost.
The proper response is to LIE.
My father-in-law fell through the hatch on his sailboat, broke five ribs and punctured his lung. My wife took him to the ER at Northeat Georgia Medical Center. It was full of Mexicans with strep throat. She walked up to the nurse and said “My father is having a heart attack, you need to triage him IMMEDIATELY.” They rolled him right in.
The moral of the story is, if it is REALLY an emergency, then LIE to admissions staff and get your loved one into triage as fast as possible.
I asked about their immigration status because in southern California, illegal immigration is one of the major reasons for this crap.
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