Don't piss off the emergency nurse at King-Harbor Hospital, you may end up dying in the emergency room lobby:
Turning to Rodriguez, the nurse said, "You have already been seen, and there is nothing we can do," according to a report by the county office of public safety, which provides security at the hospital.
Parked in the emergency room lobby in a wheelchair after police left, she fell to the floor. She lay on the linoleum, writhing in pain, for 45 minutes, as staffers worked at their desks and numerous patients looked on.
Aside from one patient who briefly checked on her condition, no one helped her. A janitor cleaned the floor around her as if she were a piece of furniture. A closed-circuit camera captured everyone's apparent indifference.
LA Times has the full story: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-king20may20,0,1577522,full.story
Another thing… I don’t know what you expect from this blog. This is my first visit but some seem to think that the presentation or even the story itself it was inappropriate. If you don’t mind another voice, I think we are all maybe only a few tiers removed from being in danger of the same thing. People don’t want to talk about things that are unpleasant or that make them uncomfortable. In fact, your blogger here let this hospital off easy. Had that been a relative of mine that was neglected and allowed to die, I would have already removed the attending’s thorax.
We’re on thin ice in the country when it comes to healthcare and it’s gonna take the voices of a great majority of Americans to make any real changes. Health care has become just another business… a bureaucracy that neglects the very people… the consumer, that keeps it afloat.
Thanks for letting me rant. Best to all.
"We probably have different standards"
is that really necessary? To make a joke out of a terrible situation?
After she got a bed it took another 2 hours to see a dr, and we were told there was a shortage of doctors... there were 5 doctors in a 10-15 bed A & E.