Tape: 911 operators did little to help dying woman in ER »
Posted by: david_nwpa 1 year, 2 months ago110 Comments Report this Story
A woman who lay bleeding on the emergency room floor of a troubled inner-city hospital died after 911 dispatchers refused to contact paramedics or an ambulance to take her to another facility, newly released tapes of the emergency calls reveal.
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david_nwpa1 year, 2 months ago
This story is a follow-up to previously posted stories about this case. Edith Rodriguez died needlessly in an ER in Los Angeles. The staff and administrators promise a full investigation. Where is Michael Moore when we need him? He should have had his camera crew taping this.
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mark-stevens1 year, 2 months ago
ER's are maxed out or closed. The illegal immigration is draining the ER's. There is more work and less money coming in. How many gun shot wounds were they attending to at that time? The hospital is in L.A. People think that medicine is a right... even if thay have never paid for it!!
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koranagirl1 year, 2 months ago
since illegals pay into social security and rarely collect it later, they return to their home countries instead, then all we have to do is transfer some of that money back to the hospitals to pay for health care. oh, that's right, the "malingering" old people in the US who could still do a day's labor are living of of this..."even if they have never paid for it!!" check out the statistics, "illegals" pay in more to social security and taxes than they get back, pure and simple, our govt knows it.
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WCFIELDS1 year, 2 months ago
Dave, "Where is Michael Moore when we need him? He should have had his camera crew taping this."
This is the Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in L.A. and has been a bad joke for years. Michael Moore could have shown up at any time in the past decade for a fine expose.
My guess is that Moore would have to shout Down at the minority community instead of shouting up to the powers in government. His style does not include criticising minority groups.
By the way, the school system in this area is also in the same shape. Michael won't show.
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Watchman_Dave1 year, 2 months ago
"Where is Michael Moore?" --Let's see, it's a gov't run hospital, funded by federal, state and county dollars. Overseen by a county board. And, all offending parties in this case are gov't employees. The hospital staff, police, 911 operators --all gov't employees.
This is socialized medicine and would have the opposite (a negative one) message that Mr Moore's 'Sicko' is trying to send. Check other gov't funded (especially inner-city)hospitals accross the country and you will find the same, if not worse. Grady Hospital in Atlanta is a good example (great burn center but don't go to the ER). While not all gov't funded hospitals are bad we are seeing more and more reports like this. Hillarycare will take us there...
All staff and emergency workers involved are accessories to this woman's death. Will there be charges?
You'll never see this one re-enacted on one of those ER reality shows.
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david_nwpa1 year, 2 months ago
Hey, watchman, I read your comments with concern. As much concern, in fact, as President Bush had about Walter Reed Medical Center. His point is to go after government waste and abuse. Michael Moore attacks the wrongs in society. He is not necessarily proscribing socialized medicine. What it looks like is the hospital is just horribly inefficient and overcrowded.
If you think Hillarycare is taking us toward socialized medicine, then you must be convinced she will win the election. If that is the case, then it sucks to be a Republican. Guess you have the whole system figured out for the rest of us.
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PapaWolf1 year, 2 months ago
Watchman - This is NOT socialized medicine. This is an extremely underfunded & understaffed hospital with the gov't funding instead going in favor of subsidizing pharmaceutical & insurance co's.
The health care in this country USED to be great. Now it's only great for those who can afford it. Try getting an insurance co to pay for some of your procedures even after you spend thousands of dollars on their premiums & co-pays.
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PapaWolf1 year, 2 months ago
>>Where is Michael Moore when we need him
I just heard him on the radio yesterday. He has a new movie coming out called "Sicko" about the health insurance industry & the for-profit health care industry.
Some of the testimony they played is disgusting for the "best health care system in the world."
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cushi1 year, 2 months ago
I find what happened to that poor woman apalling beyond belief! What difference does it make if she was poor or rich, insured or uninsured, citizen or non-citizen. She was a citizen of this world and a fellow human being, and she deserved better! I would have thought that anyone in that emergency room who had ANY kind of medical knowledge would have stopped to do SOMETHING for her. SOMETHING to make her more comfortable if nothing else was possible. Beyond that, anyone in her vicinity should have given her comfort through a touch or a kind word or, more importantly, prayer. COMPASSION is a word that apparently not many of us are familiar with these days. Just thinking about someone dying like that brings tears to my eyes and a crushing heaviness to my heart. I wish the ER staff could be charged with negligent homocide or criminal negligence. The 911 operators should be re-trained, and the male who was so caustic and callous in his reponse should be fired.
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pretti8091 year, 2 months ago
They can be charged with neglect, homicide etc. As a nurse I know there are many ways you can be with a crime, for example if I make a patient walk and he refuses to walk but does so then falls etc., I can be charged with aggravated assault for making him do something he did not want to do, even though it is for his own good. It is a fine line. I do hope something is done, it is very appaling that only two people even tried to help. Ugh what is this world coming to??
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blksentra21 year, 2 months ago
It is a shame that it is quite the norm for inner-city hospitals and medical facilities to be like this. I used to go to a dialysis clinic near downtown Atlanta and it was the worst experience of my life. The staff didn't care much about the patients and the patients were a bunch of crabby rude old people turned that way due to negligence.
Needless to say I transferred to a more well kept clinic near the suburbs where I live.
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zaph221 year, 2 months ago
I can sort of understand the 911 operator acting this way, since the woman was in a hospital emergency room, one would assume the staff there would help her. And as much as we complain about how long we have to wait in emergeny rooms when we do need to go to one, with each complaint a little more credibility in those complaints is lost. I see how the 911 operators actions are a problem, but I'm not quite sure why people are focusing so much on that and not on what to me would appear to be the bigger issue. What was going on with the hospital she was in, shouldn't that hospital, where the woman was, be the real issue here? What in the world was wrong with that hospital staff that they let this happen right in front of them, and the people calling 911, when that didnt' help why didn't someone grab one of the medical staff and drag them to the woman and demand they help her immediately?
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PapaWolf1 year, 2 months ago
>>when that didnt' help why didn't someone grab one of the medical staff and....
The story says, "Relatives reported she died as police were wheeling her out of the hospital after the officers they had asked to help Rodriguez arrested her instead on a parole violation."
I wouldn't be surprised that if someone did try grabbing a staff member, that security would've been all over that person. Especially considering they were more interested in arresting her than assisting her.
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not2needy1 year, 2 months ago
What they did to that woman was abhorable, i just can't imagine what type of person it takes to stand and watch someone die, after taking an oath to save lives.
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david_nwpa1 year, 2 months ago
What I do not understand more than anything is how this ER runs its triage service. Rather than checking to see who has insurance first, they should be helping the sickest patients first. If the hospital had trouble keeping up with the overflow of patients, they should have transported some to other hospitals to help with the crowding.
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Miami_med1 year, 2 months ago
They do do this. Don't worry, no one at that hospital had insurance or any intention of paying their bill. That's really the problem. We're all outraged when the system breaks down, but I can assure you that most of the people didn't actually want to pay their share in supporting it. How can this not happen eventually?
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ZenAgain1 year, 2 months ago
Miami, the thing that is really disturbing is the fact that the richest most prosperous nation on earth can drop half a trillion dollars on a war, while a lady lies bleeding from the mouth on the floor of an overcrowded, under-staffed and poorly equipped hospital. You work hard and pay tax don't you? What are you getting back for paying rent to live in that wonderful country of yours? I have a little green and gold card in my pocket that guarantees I can get first class health care any time I need it. If I require life saving surgery, I will get it, without someone squabbling over whether I can pay the bill at the end. Doesn't it scare you that you may be left to die because you were a little short on cash on one particular day?
If Halliburton, Lockheed, Raytheon et al had interests in Hospitals, it may be a different story.
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Miami_med1 year, 2 months ago
I really feel compelled to respond here. First of all, that was a different hospital.
Second of all, this dumping homeless people argument is insane. The people are homeless. If they are medically stabilized, where are they supposed to go? They are homeless. Boarding them in the ER is expensive and drives up the price of ER care for everyone. No one pays for this care, so the cost goes to you when you get sick.
I know that this is totally impossible for anyone to understand who isn't in medicine, but often these "dumped" homeless people show up to the ER multiple times a day, costing millions of dollars with nothing wrong. They are not sick. They are trying to use the ER to make up for social problems, and that is not what it is for. It's easy to be outraged when you don't see hundreds of malingerers a day looking for shelter or food, who lie about needing medical care and take advantage of the system. When the ERs go under, you'll learn too late.
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koranagirl1 year, 2 months ago
you're absolutely right. if you're sick and poor and haven't paid properly for health insurance over a number of years, don't go to a hospital--you're not "entitled", just fall asleep in some gutter and die! whatever happened to "give me your poor, your tired and your hungry?" FYI most of the homeless are mentally ill and the rest are unemployable. sorry about that, but sometimes the human body doesn't work right. maybe we could sue God over this? imagine the audacity of God putting human beings on earth and they're either mentally ill or not smart enough to make even minimum wage. and then they're dirty and stinky and other people have to "pay" for them out of their own hard earned cash. disgusting system, that's what earth is, and we KNOW whom to blame! now all we need to do is figure out how to sue and get our cash back.
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david_nwpa1 year, 2 months ago
Do you by any chance drive an expensive car? If you are in medicine, how do you have time to blog? If you are in medicine, aren't you missing your tee time? I am just curious here. I know docs do an amazing job, and not all are fabulously wealthy. However, I am concerned when doctors with bloated wallets profess to others what we should think about medicine, when we see the horrible care provided in some hospitals.
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PapaWolf1 year, 2 months ago
>>If they are medically stabilized, where are they supposed to go?
You're not always right on this. The cases I've heard about were people still in need of medical attention - a man still bleeding from a beating, a woman suffering from dementia, a paraplegic put in a taxi w/his bag still on him & no crutches or wheel chair, unconscious people, and on. I'm sure there are homeless who are just looking for a free lunch or hot meal, but where else can they go when every other type of shelter or service is systematically closed by gov'ts looking to save a few pennies?
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Gransater1 year, 2 months ago
I have to agree with zaph 22 above, that the 911 operators really should be out of the picture at this point. Picking up a person from ER would be very out of the ordinary.
I also feel that this particular situation was miles above the triage stage. When blood is coming out from somebody, to the point where a janitor is needed, the time for talking is over, and time for action started 5 minutes ago.
I'm not certain as to why there wasn't any action, I can only guess, and my guess involves insurance and payment for services issues, but it could be something else. However, whatever the reason, I cannot se that it SHOULD have taken precedence over saving a human life. It scares the daylight out of me thinking of what's down the line, if situations like this one becomes s.o.p.
Personaly, I feel that the Dr and Nurse in charge should be triad on manslaughter, and the hospital made to pay a huge apeasement fee to the family of the unfortunate victim.
G
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Miami_med1 year, 2 months ago
Try them for manslaughter, and there will be no more doctors or nurses working in the ERs. There is already a huge shortage of specialists. This is a one sided story. You just don't get it. Do you know how common this actually is? There is a problem, it's a big problem, but it isn't with the doctor who has hours of real emergencies to see, because emergency care for inner city indigents doesn't pay well enough to actually create a sufficient amount of ER space. Blaming the staff creates more victims. Period.
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PapaWolf1 year, 2 months ago
>>Try them for manslaughter, and there will be no more doctors or nurses working in the ERs.
There's already a large number of doctors & nurses leaving because of the insurance industry. My brother & sister-in-law both tell us about the probs they have w/insurance co's, malpractice premiums, etc. And most of their probs stem from the for-profit health care industry.
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WCFIELDS1 year, 2 months ago
"I'm not certain as to why there wasn't any action..."
Are you at all familiar with the Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in L.A.?
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BronxBomber1 year, 2 months ago
This is just case of negligence,incompetence, and outright apathy at it's worst! The 911 operators, and that blasted hospital should be held to accountability to it's fullest! I saw this on the news yesterday, and it seems more and more likely that animals have more compassion than mankind! (Hah! 'man-kind,' talk about an oxymoron!) It never ceases to amaze me of the nature of some people,maybe these creatures hasn't caught up with the rest of society in terms of evolution.
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zaph221 year, 2 months ago
It's sad that no help was sent, but there was help where the woman was there is the real problem. Put yourself in the 911 operators place, someone calls for medical help, then tells you they are in an emergency room and want you to send them medical help in the emergency room, are you going to believe this right off? I don't know about you, but if someone called and I was the one that first took the call and the caller asked me to send paramedics to an emergency room, I'd be questioning if the call was legitimate, wouldn't you? Since one would think in an emergency room medical help would be available without the need for paramedics. Sadly in this case that wasn't true, there was no help where there should have been, right there where the woman lay dying, in the ER.
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koranagirl1 year, 2 months ago
is there some reason why the 911 staffers couldn't have simply called the triage nurse and alerted him or her to the fact that someone was calling 911 and insisting a patient on their premises was vomitting blood and may have been gravely ill? You know, the phone number to every emergency room is in 411. and sometimes people get acutely sick in the emergency room. the hospital needs to revamp its policy and procedures, that's all.
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david_nwpa1 year, 2 months ago
The article also notes that the Feds are threatening the hospital with taking away Federal dollars. Stop threatening and do it. Apparently the only thing that administrators hear is the sound of money leaving their offices.
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marlenebomer1 year, 2 months ago
First of all, this hospital is known in the neighborhood as "Killer King", because of all the negligence that's happened in the past which has seen a number of patients dying.
Second, I too can understand the 911 operators' position, but if I was in the center, I'd be making a call to the ER and alerting the staff, and if the person wasn't treated the police would be showing up to arrest the staff!
Third, the one male operator who was slammed by the woman who called and said god would strike him for his indifference, needs to have another training session in regards to compassion. He definitely was not understanding the situation and was in fact rude to the extreme!
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djn3nunez31 year, 2 months ago
Last summer my wife left work to go to a nearby hospital emergency room(Woodlands Memorial), complaining of chest pains, shortness of breath and numbness in her left sholder and arm. They told her it would be a 4 hour wait, have a seat. By the time I got there she left the place in disgust. I took her to another hospital who took her right away. She had full blockage in one art. Thank God they saved her life with a stint.
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Miami_med1 year, 2 months ago
In 1985, the federal government passed a law called EMTALA, which essentially forces all hospital ERs to see everyone, regardless of ability to pay. No one pays. The government doesn't pay. What happens next? Half of the ERs in the country go under, literally. They can't pay their bills. The number of people taking advantage of the system also goes up. Many ERs are so overrun, that your wife with chest pain is literally behind 4 hours worth of other REAL EMERGENCIES, not to mention all of the malingerers who you can't tell if they are having a true emergency or not. I know we get emotional, and that it is life or death, but the blame is misplaced. Blame a system that forces too many emergencies into too small a place with insufficient funding to take care of them all. These things are bound to happen. King-Drew is one of the worst, but it is not the only one. King-Drew loses money. If you shut it down, it will actually make more.
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djn3nunez31 year, 2 months ago
We have full coverage. And that fact seemed secondary at the hospital she recieved treatment at. In fact since it was an emergency our insurance paid the entire bill. The original hospital e-room seem full of, lets say, people with no insurance,(though I didn't stict around to find out).
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SS4541 year, 2 months ago
And most likly the worst part of all this will be that you cant sue the Hospital Due to the Republicons setting limits on wronfull DEATH..!This Hospital should be Closed.
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Miami_med1 year, 2 months ago
Go ahead and shut it down. There will then be no ER to cater to all of the people in the worst areas of LA.
NO ONE PAYS FOR THEIR CARE. NO ONE. THAT HOSPITAL WAS A ZOO, TOTALLY OVERRUN. Do you really think that everyone wanted to let her die, or do you think that there might be more to this story that isn't as appealing to a journalist?
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NelsonR1 year, 2 months ago
Miami - had to give you a good comment since I see where you were going with your post. Sad predicament for all.
Now if we leave Iraq and all foreign wars and meddling, I think functional hospitals, for a fraction of the war cost, would abound within our society. Never happen, since like my post, the conservatives will decry, a SOCIALIST desiring Socialism. Tired old SH@@.
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NelsonR1 year, 2 months ago
If that was Paris Hilton vomitting on the gurney she would have numerous medical personal at her beck and call. This is America. The Americans glued to their tv's watching another star to satiate their appetite for tripe. All abysmal but the elite rule while the average person sucks this nonsense up like a dry sponge.
Whats the next episode in the media quest for idol worship, my suggestion, go to the tabloids for current events to increase your viewership.
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tyronefl11 year, 2 months ago
If I called 911, there would be so many bleeps on the tape that it could not be played over the airwaves!
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FirePro9111 year, 2 months ago
Miami Med, you must realize that the majority of people posting here are ignorant of how hospitals run and what they face each and every day. All three of our hospitals we take patients to go on drive by status 3 to 4 times a weeks.
They are clogged with 911 calls that we transport to them. People these day will call 911 for almost anything as they believe since an ambulance is taking them they will not have to wait in the waiting room.
I have recently see an ambulance run emergency traffic out of my station for "anal irritation." How screwed up is that? We routinely run on diarrhea calls. Who the hell calls 911 for diarrhea?
There is so much abuse of the 911 system that it is overwhelming us and the hospitals.
Then when the stupid news makes a full blown story out of one case, everyone goes nuts.
One thing they didn't tell everyone is that the woman was a known meth addict who pretty much lived at that hospital. They didn't kill her, her addiction to drugs killed her.
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cushi1 year, 2 months ago
Frankly, Miami Med, I don't give a (Fill in the blank.). If a doctor is there for whatever he chose to be there, he STILL has an obligation to give the best care to whomever comes through those doors. All of those doctors knew exactly what they were walking in to, and they "chose" to do so. They knew the job was difficult, dirty, dangerous. low paying, frustrating and, all too often, thankless. THAT IS STILL NO EXCUSE TO LET A POOR WOMAN DIE ON THE FLOOR OF THE EMERGENCY ROOM! There is such a thing as setting priorities, and you can't tell me that woman's condition didn't warrant priority treatment.
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Gransater1 year, 2 months ago
Miami
I'm sure there is a lot more to the sory than was reported. I agree with you that he hospital may have been overrun, and that this may be common.
"IF" that is the case, then the sytem is way ot f whack. We project ourslves as the wealthiest country in the world, with endless resources, and yet, people die in the ER. What's wrong with tis picture?
Why can't we at least be honest, an admit that unless you have payment resources available, you may or may not get needed care. Let's stop pretening that we have "The Best Healthcare In The World", and see what can be done to improve the situation.
Our world class care is relly a hit or miss, often for the benefit of people with money.
I still think the hospital's personnel at fault. Time to draw a line in the sand, and stop the buck passing with excuses. Those don't belong where peoples life's are in the outcome basket.
G
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Miami_med1 year, 2 months ago
This happens all over the world, and is just as common in the socialist countries across the pond. In fact, inner city hospitals in the US by and large function like government hospitals in Europe. Essentially, the really poor get care on a little superior to those in the socialist system, and everyone who pays often does much better. We're not flawless, but don't mistake our flaws as being worse than those of our neighbors. What happened here is tragic, but it is the inevitable result of letting people use the ED at whim with no consequences either legal or financial for abuse of the system. The staff gets desensitized, and the ED shuts down.
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david_nwpa1 year, 2 months ago
If this article has done nothing else, it has drawn attention to the overcrowded, understaffed and poor conditions that exist in some large city hospitals. Those who can afford quality health care, such as Paris Hilton can rush off and pay for it by whipping out a credit card. Others have to rely on insurance or the government. Still others work 3 jobs to have an income, but no longer qualify for health coverage because they work too much. I am sorry, but that is totally messed up.
It pleases me to no end to see how many people responded to this article and have stood on one common principle. Health care in this country is in disrepair.
One nagging problem with the woman who died is ...for how long was she aware of the condition she suffered? The article said she had a perforated bowel. That kind of injury does not happen overnight, or can it? Does anyone here know?
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Miami_med1 year, 2 months ago
It can happen relatively quickly. From what I understand, the woman was abusing a cocktail of stiumlants, including amphetamines at the time. This is a complication of abusing those drugs.
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Amazing11 year, 2 months ago
One report I heard was that she had been in the ER on each of the two previous days complaining of stomach pains and they sent her home both times. Sounds to me like someone needed to run some kind of test.
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blksentra21 year, 2 months ago
I heard today about this story. They say that there were police officers presents, but they were actually checking the woman about a parole violation while she lay dying there on the hospital floor.
At least that is what I saw on GMA this morning.
Quite sad and outrageous at the same time.
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koranagirl1 year, 2 months ago
yeah, they probably want to seize the body so they can impound it until the relatives pay $150 for body towing and $50 per day storage! The audacity of her to die instead of serving her
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