Heart Attack Patient Dies In ER Waiting Room- Ruled a Homicide

Associated Press ^ | 9/16/06 | 60 Gunner

[goldstategop]

The nursing staff should be charged with depraved indifference to human life and whatever other charges can be filed here. This should have received their immediate attention.

"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 Paleologus

[308MBR]

Hey Freepers, if you ever go to the ER with a real emergency situation, either pass out in front of the reception desk, tell them you're on Medicaid or an illegal alien so you can get some service.

[varina davis]

Excellent post, wish there were more like you.

[60Gunner]

Correction to my headline: "Room." I don't know how spellcheck missed that. Sheesh. Sorry, folks.

[Phibes]

Yea I know about this. It happened in Chicago. Give the family the expected $900,000,000 and forget about it.

[umgud]

A few years ago, I went to the ER with chest pains. They treated me ASAP. Turns out my heart was/is great, but I had a gallbladder attack of the highest order. They took it out on the same visit. Sure glad I didn't have socialized medicine like Canada, UK.

[NinoFan]

Exactly my thoughts on the matter.

[jazusamo]

Good post and everything you said is right on.

[linn37]

I had an Uncle pass away this week . At home he showed all the classic symptoms of a heart attack and put off seeking help. By the time his wife called the ambulance and they arrived he had coded. I just can't help but think that if he had just agreed to be seen in the ED early on that he would still be here.

BTW for all you Dr's and nurses on board. I overheard his whole medical history of that day while riding on the elevator with them as I was moving around to do my collections. And no I did'nt repeat any of it to family. It ranged from what had happened in the ED,to where he was at now in the Cath Lab and his chances of making it.

[Dumpster Baby]

chest pain + shortness of breath + nausea = heart attack until proven otherwise

This cannot be emphasized enough. Wednesday night my brother experienced this and called his girlfriend to get him some Tums. He refused to let her call an ambulance. A short time later he was DOA in the emergency room.

[buccaneer81]

A few years ago, I went to the ER with chest pains. They treated me ASAP. Turns out my heart was/is great, but I had a gallbladder attack of the highest order.

I had the same experience 10 years ago, when I was 33. As my Dad had died of a heart attack at 40, I was a bit freaked out. But my outcome was the same as yours. Gallbladder.

[cryptical]

And the moral of the story for my non-nursing readers out there is: chest pain + shortness of breath + nausea = heart attack until proven otherwise. So if you have these symptoms, don't be stupid.

Worth repeating 100 times. I had these symptoms at work a few years back (age 39), decided to go to the emergency room down the street. 10 minutes later I'm having an angioplasty. Better safe than sorry is what I say. :)

[feedback doctor]

Thanks for your post. Sad for those touched by this situation, but you maybe have saved a life here, could even be that of a looney lib that's lurking!

[Walkingfeather]

FR folks listen up.It feels like someone is leaning on your chest.You can't get comfortable, arm shoulder pain....

Happened to me 3 years ago and I was 36. I am a EMT ( emergency medical technition) so I knew the symptoms. I will say I still walked around denying it for 10 min. before I called 911. Screw embarrassment, when I called I knew who would be coming to my house! This is not a time to be prideful just call and let them take you.

I will tell you why, the faster you get in the less damage you will have. I went in on a monday, had a stint put in wednesday out thursday and went camping in yosemite on saturday. No joke. Cardiac medicine has changed so much in the last 20 years. If I decided to sleep it off most likely it would have been a funeral on saturday.

Dont be a prideful SOB, just call and if you are wrong everyone can be overjoyed... if you are right you will live to see another day, Lord willing.

[vrwcagent0498]

Being in the medical field, I agree with your analysis, but I would rather think it "gross negligence". Doesn't homicide require some malicious intent beforehand?

I was only having palpitations one evening and being brought straight back in the ED immediately at the age of 38.

There is no excuse for what happened to that lady, the only other scenario I can think of is that she may have been a frequent flier in the ED , so they didn't take her complaints seriously. Still no excuse. You treat it as an MI unless the tests rule it out conclusively.

[msnimje]

Doesn't this mean the Governments of France, UK and Canada should be tried for murder for all the poor folks who died waiting for medical treatment there?

[60Gunner]

Well, 308, normally if a person shows up complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath, they get a "get-into-the-ER-right-frigging-now" card. Insurance or legal status has nothing to do with it. EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) requires ERs to assess and render emergent care to all comers regardless of condition or insurance status.

Feigning syncope (faked passing out) is likely to make a lot of very busy ER staff extremely unhappy with you, especially if there are a lot of genuinely sick people waiting to be seen. We get the "swooners" every now and then, and it's amazing how quickly their eyes snap open and they recover when they hear the words "Foley catheter" and "nasogastric tube" in connection with their name. It's a miracle, I tell you.

Not that I'd expect you to do such a thing, mind you- just that we have seen it all at least a thousand times before.

I still have a hard time understanding how this woman could present with those symptoms and be ignored. It just grates on my professional conscience.

[Cindy]

DITTO that, with the exception of a trip to the doctors and a quicker trip to the hospital. Half hour later I was checked in.

[ladyinred]

This was pure negligence, and a sign of the times when our ERS are over filled with patients, mostly illegals to tell the truth. No excuse for this however.