Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19207050/?GT1=10056

Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help


Updated: 2 hours, 17 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - 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.

Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, died of a perforated bowel on May 9 at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Her death was ruled accidental by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Relatives said Rodriguez was bleeding from the mouth and writhing in pain for 45 minutes while she was at a hospital waiting area. Experts have said she could have survived had she been treated early enough.

County and state authorities are now investigating Rodriguez’s death. 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. Sheriff’s Department spokesman Duane Allen said Wednesday that the investigation is ongoing.

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

So how is this 911's fault? Yeah, they could have been more helpful, but do they have the authority to determine what hospital to send someone? It sounds like the problem was the hospital.

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

The healthcare system is messed up.

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

It's kind of an incomplete story, it doesn't say whether the ER was full, etc, and some of the "boyfriend"'s words can't be taken literally since he evidently doesn't speak English and called his girlfriend his wife.

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

I agree completely. The woman was already in an ER, how is 911 to blame?

Excerpt:

“I’m in the emergency room. My wife is dying and the nurses don’t want to help her out,” Rodriguez’s boyfriend, Jose Prado, is heard saying in Spanish through an interpreter on the tapes.

“What’s wrong with her?” a female dispatcher asked.

“She’s vomiting blood,” Prado said.

“OK, and why aren’t they helping her?” the dispatcher asked.

“They’re watching her there and they’re not doing anything. They’re just watching her,” Prado said.

The dispatcher told Prado to contact a doctor and then said paramedics wouldn’t pick her up because she was already in a hospital. She later told him to contact county police officers at a security desk.

A second 911 call was placed eight minutes later by a bystander who requested that an ambulance be sent to take Rodriguez to another hospital for care.

“She’s definitely sick and there’s a guy that’s ignoring her,” the woman told a male dispatcher.

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

Agreed, I think the headline is out of whack to what the real story of this is. That is the hospitals' piss-poor care of the woman.

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

Federal inspectors last week said emergency room patients were in “immediate jeopardy” of harm or death, and King-Harbor was given 23 days to shape up or risk losing federal funding.

I'm curious as to how much, or what kind of federal funding they receive. I feel bad that someone lost their life here, and wonder if it had to be that way. The care obviously was lackluster considering the woman was bleeding from the mouth, and was ignored, but it's no secret that illegals flood ER's in this country for obvious reasons, which seriously dilutes the quality of care for legal citizens. My question is, whether or not that was a factor here, and if so, would that even be reported?

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

As I said, I'm suspicious of the whole thing. Hint . . . learn English.

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

What's wierd is the story printed the man's words in english, although it says he spoke them in spanish, but had some interpretor. I'd like to hear the audio.

Re: Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help
 

That's why I'm suspicious of the "and the nurses don’t want to help her out" part. I don't know if the nurses couldn't communicate with him or if "and the nurses don’t want to help her out" was not translated correctly but I have a feeling this isn't exactly how it happened.

Hint again . . . learn English.