Woman Dies on Hospital Waiting Room Floor
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According to CNN, Esmin Green is a symbol of a health-care system that seems to have failed horribly. Esmin’s pastor from her church says she had been hospitalized with emotional problems in the past, and recently appeared to be in distress again. The pastor decided to call 911 to get her some help. Upon her admission, Green waited nearly 24 hours for treatment. Hospital surveillance cameras from four different angles show her fall out of her chair to the floor 5:32 a.m. She landed face-down on the floor, convulsing, and she stopped moving at 6:07 a.m. At 6:35 a.m., the tape shows a hospital employee approaching and nudging Green with her foot, the group said. Help was summoned three minutes later. In addition, hospital staff falsified Green’s records to cover up the time she had lain there without assistance. Contrary to what was recorded by the hospital’s video cameras, the patient’s medical records say that at 6 a.m., she got up and went to the bathroom, and at 6:20 a.m. she was ’sitting quietly in waiting room’… more than 10 minutes since she last moved and 48 minutes after she fell to the floor.
I cannot even begin to describe how outraged I am over the ‘treatment’ of this woman. I watched the surveillance video, and I think my mouth literally hit the floor. You can see the security guard come in the waiting room twice, look right at the patient, and walk away without doing a thing. Did he think she was stuck amongst those chairs and lying on the floor for the fun of it? He couldn’t take 10 seconds to see if she needed help? I mean, it’s not like she was in a hospital waiting room or anything.
Ms. Green is from Jamaica, and left six children behind. She had been working and living here, attending church, and sending money home to her family. I have a feeling she didn’t have traditional health insurance. She likely had state-paid ‘insurance’, or none at all. Yep, you guessed it. I’m going on a rant.
You cannot sit there and tell me people in this same situation are not treated differently from those who have traditional health insurance. I know for a fact they are. When I was divorced, my daughters and I received medical ‘insurance’ from the state for a couple of years. The place I worked offered insurance, but had I paid for it, we wouldn’t have eaten. I was also going to college full time in order to obtain a better job where I could afford it. I’m not ashamed of being on state aid. We needed it, and that’s that.
While we were on this program, we of course visited various doctors, clinics and hospitals. We were treated with everything from snide comments to outright rudeness and disgust. We were looked upon as “lesser” than people who paid in cash, or presented their shiny ‘traditional’ insurance cards. Is it my fault that the state is so slow about paying? I actually had a nurse one time comment to me that it’s “pathetic to see able-bodied people taking handouts”. I smiled at her sweetly, and said “I’m glad to know you presume so much about my life. Would you like me to dissect yours?”. I was humiliated, but I sure as hell did not let her see that.
Would Ms. Green be dead right now if someone… ANYONE… at the hospital had paid attention to her? That’s impossible to answer, of course. But, the fact is, we’ll never know. She may have been able to be saved quite easily for all we know. It’s sad and infuriating that there is no answer to that question. It’s repungent to know that because of lazy people who don’t obviously give a damn about others or their jobs couldn’t be bothered to come to the aid of a woman who so obviously needed them.
7 Comments
Phillip Dazley
July 6th, 2008
at 7:15am
It’s just an other example of how far our society has regressed in terms of sensetivity to other human beings. We as a society have forgotten what we were taught by our fore fathers as far as what it means to be a society of caring individuals toward other men. Most of modern society has decided that they are so self-important that they have no responsibility to other fellow human beings! We would rather watch someone die then possibly get our hands dirty by helping them. “It’s not my problem” is what you will probably hear from them……Well guess what people it is our problem! We are all in this sorry world togrther and NOONE GETS OUT ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!! We as a society must stand up for others and the downtrodden, it is not just a choice but our duty to stand up for them!
Ed
July 6th, 2008
at 7:12pm
BTW, I give poor Ms. Green the benefit of the doubt that she was here legally, as many non-citizens are, but Esmin Green is not the victim of ‘insensitivity’ as much as a healthcare system being crushed under the weight of vast hordes of people permitted to enter our country illegally, knowing that all they have to do to get medical care is show up at any emergency room and they won’t be turned away, even if they can’t (or won’t) pay. First it was a few, then more, then lots more, and, now, unless you’re squirting blood or something equally dramatic, you take a number and sit while overworked medical staff slog thru the endless parade of freeloaders STEALING healthcare from people here legitimately (citizens and aliens who actually play by the rules). Why is healthcare so EXPENSIVE?? Because you’re not paying just for yourself, but for literally MILLIONS of people who shouldn’t be here in the first place, and happily take, for free, what everyone else has to pay for. Get it? It’s like going to the grocery store and seeing people walk out the door with cartloads of food, and the store tacks the cost of their ‘free’ food onto your bill. It’s that blatant, except that nobody can see it happening. If they could, the outrage would be overwhelming.
Ray
July 7th, 2008
at 12:40am
When my father-in-law was 70, he came over to build a new
front porch at my home. He was a retired pressroom boss for
our local Temple of Truth which was/is a Scripps paper. He
had good insurance even after retiring. He got sick at our
home and refused to let us call 9-1-1, only if we just had gone
against his wishes.
He left and drove himself to the local university hospital and
was a walkin to the ER. He had had a CVA. Stroke to the
unwashed. He waited in the ER for over 18 hours to be seen
while other supposedlyl more important cases were seen.
He eventually was seen and lived to tell about it.
But that was his Waterloo in non-medical terms. He slid
down hill from there and passed away at 73. My wife and I
and his grandchildren miss him a lot. He was just like the
lady Kat mentioned. He, like she, had loved ones some
where and didn’t deserve to be treated like that by an
ER, here or anywhere.
Lax
July 7th, 2008
at 9:20am
Like just about everything else in the New America, health care is a two tiered system. A fantastic, amazing system if you can pay and third-world crap-shoot for the rest of us. As long as we elect people who give themselves the best coverage in the world, but spend more maney on the military than every other country in the world combined then we got exactly the system we deserve. Can it possibly make sense to have health care executives making millions of dollars per year and flying around in $50 million private jets? How many times does the company have to say no to someone’s claim just to pay for the waste?
Jim Miller
July 7th, 2008
at 9:35pm
I am not surprised at this at all and it doesn’t have a thing to do with money. My brother had surgery for colorectal cancer last month. He has top end insurance and his wife has worked at our local hospital for 18 years. He was neglected and not given his IV’s and was allowed to have violent nausea for several hours Short version-blood clots & septic shock. Instead of coming home the next day, he spent a week on a ventilator in ICU followed by 3 weeks in progressive care. By the grace of God and the fact he is a big, tough dude, he started his chemo/radiation therapy today
Belinda
July 8th, 2008
at 12:45am
Horrible!!! Really awful how people can be so heartless, just shows that this world is getting colder as the years go by. Really sad how one can ignore an individual that is in desperate need of medical attention.
Teknodaddy
July 18th, 2008
at 1:53am
Disgusting. I, too, saw the video. I have been on both sides:self-pay and work-comp, and also some of the greatest insurance ever (ie my last 2 children cost exactly $8 each for the entire prenatal care and birth). I was also on state-aid for several months, and I have both statistical and empirical data within the paradigm of my own family medical experiences to support the opinion of Kat, our blogger. I must disagree with one of the posters about the ER being overwhelmed (at least in this case). That is a generalization, and not valid in this instance. Although we can’t see the whole picture here, several people watched her seize on the floor, yet they did nothing. Then, there was a cover-up. It is merely another example of the hearts of our fellow citizens growing cold. It’s a sad world we leave to our children. I don’t know if it’s allowed or not, but here is a vid on youtube citing several examples of this sadly growing trend of apathy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibkBowfZ7g8
Have a blessed day, all.