Could health care get any better?
Caught on tape: Hospital patient left to die.

Esmin Green, 49, had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours when she toppled from her seat at 5:32 a.m. on June 19, falling face down on the floor.

She was dead by 6:35, when someone on the medical staff, flagged down by a person in the waiting room, finally approached, nudged Green with her foot, and gently prodded her shoulder, as if to wake her. The staffer then left and returned with someone wearing a white lab coat who examined her and summoned help.

Until the staffer's appearance, Green's collapse barely caused a ripple. Other patients waiting a few feet away didn't react. Security guards and a member of the hospital's staff appeared to notice her prone body at least three times, but made no visible attempt to see if she needed help.

One guard didn't even leave his chair, rolling it around a corner to stare at the body, then rolling away a few moments later.

Green's medical records raised the possibility that someone might have tried to cover up the circumstances of the death.

One notation said that at 6 a.m., she was "awake, up and about" and had just used the restroom. Another said that at 6:20 a.m., she was sitting quietly in the waiting room, and had a normal blood pressure. During both of those times, Green was either in her death throes or already dead.

Edit: Some psych patients wait days in ERs - A follow-up of sorts.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

altoidsaddict
2008-07-13 02:55 pm UTC (link)

It's not exclusive to that one hospital, either - when I was having my stroke, Swedish Hospital (Littleton, CO) triage nurses bumped me to the back. After the first hour of waiting, my husband told them I needed help RIGHT NOW or he was taking me to another hospital. The triage nurses snapped "Oh, you'll never get in anywhere, every hospital in the city is packed, you need to go back and wait." (Plenty of ambulatory and conscious patients were called to be seen before us while I drooled and slumped over in my chair.) They refused to call the hospital down the street where my doctor worked to even see about wait times for a stroke patient.

Less than fifteen minutes later we were down the street at Porter's empty ER with an IV and stroke meds in my neck. (Which is where they had to put the IV since my circulation was shut down that much.)

Swedish is supposed to be the #1 hospital in Colorado and has an attached brain injury/rehabilitation center. And they bumped a stroke patient to the back. This woman dying could just as easily have happened there, and I hate going to a hospital alone for just that reason.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	altoidsaddict 2008-07-13 02:56 pm UTC (link)
	Er, that's Englewood, CO. You'd think I knew this 'cause I live down the street and all. (Reply to this)(Parent)

rekall
2008-07-13 04:18 pm UTC (link)

Sadly, stuff like that isn't just limited to the United States.

A few years ago my aunt broke her hand. When she gets to the ER, she figured it wouldn't take long since the only other people there were drunks who were hung over (mind you this was the middle of the afternoon so I don't know why they were drunk then other than it being the Canadian Thanksgiving).

She ended up waiting HOURS because the ER staff thought she had just sprained her wrist and that she was making a big deal over nothing (you'd think all the blood would have tipped them off). When she finally got an x-ray taken, the doctor flipped out, wondering why she wasn't taken care of sooner since it was the worst hand break that hospital had ever seen. She ended up having emergency surgery that night on it and her recovery time was twice as long as a normal hand/wrist/arm break.

I partly blame idiots going to the ER for unnecessary things (going because you're hung over or because of a twisted ankle is just wasting everyone's time). But really, the staff should be better educated on who needs help sooner than later.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -