the first few paragraphs, click link for rest of story (too long to cut/paste)
In the emergency room at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, Edith Isabel Rodriguez was seen as a complainer.
"Thanks a lot, officers," an emergency room nurse told Los Angeles County police who brought in Rodriguez early May 9 after finding her in front of the Willowbrook hospital yelling for help. "This is her third time here."
The 43-year-old mother of three had been released from the emergency room hours earlier, her third visit in three days for abdominal pain. She'd been given prescription medication and a doctor's appointment.
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.
Arriving to find Rodriguez on the floor, her boyfriend unsuccessfully tried to enlist help from the medical staff and county police — even a 911 dispatcher, who balked at sending rescuers to a hospital.
Alerted to the "disturbance" in the lobby, police stepped in — by running Rodriguez's record. They found an outstanding warrant and prepared to take her to jail. She died before she could be put into a squad car.
interesting. says she was in for abd pain 3x in 3 days,but never what they did for her test wise, or what they suspected her diagnosis was, etc.
PRN, I agree the topic has gotten pulled off direction, but Trudy started a thread about ERs being impacted with illegal immigrants and her thread was merged into the one about King-Drew.
Shall we either close this oone or return to the main event? The lady in the ER. Immigration had nothing to do with her situation. OK. Take immigration to the off topic/breakroom or current events. OK?
I'm thinking we all have our opinions on what happened. Some of us want to not jump the gun and convict a fellow nurse, and some of us want to seen her "rot in jail' or "burn".
People forget that simple mistake that we are all capable of making can land us in similiar situations. I would hate to know that my fellow nurses are posting my name on a message board, and hanging me out to dry, should I ever make a mistake...
I'm thinking we all have our opinions on what happened. Some of us want to not jump the gun and convict a fellow nurse, and some of us want to seen her "rot in jail' or "burn".
People forget that simple mistake that we are all capable of making can land us in similiar situations. I would hate to know that my fellow nurses are posting my name on a message board, and hanging me out to dry, should I ever make a mistake...
Unfortunately, Ms. Rodriquez was not related to you...
No actually, you jumped back in with the whole "we're all illegal" comments.
I've read all of the thread, and I didn't see where anyone changed their mind. For the record, I still think it was the fault of the Dr. If you are implying that I changed my mind after the nurse resigned, then you are wrong. The nurse resigning means nothing to me or my opinion.
Again, I will say that my opinion is that it was the fault of the 2 doctors who discharged her previously. She died within 45 minutes of her return. I don't believe that she would have survived. The nurse should have assessed her, but just because she fell to the ground doesn't give her a pass to the front of the list. We don't know, nor will we ever know what really happend. We don't know that she wasn't assessed, we don't know that she hadn't been seen because there were more urgent patients in front of her, and we don't know why the Dr's discharged her only 3 hours prior.
If there is fault to blame, it's with the Drs. (that way, everbody knows my opinion, and won't confuse it and/or construe it meet their needs- )
You don't think that illegal immigration is a nursing issue?
Come visit my ER....
We get illegals where I work as well. We had one stay a year because he had no where to go. What isn't a nursing issue is whether or not Native Americans are legal.
)
TazziRN, RN
6,487 Posts
PRN, I agree the topic has gotten pulled off direction, but Trudy started a thread about ERs being impacted with illegal immigrants and her thread was merged into the one about King-Drew.