Video: Death in the waiting room
posted at 11:16 am on July 1, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Via Breitbart, seeing is disbelieving. Add this to the list of incidents lately in which bystanders have looked on impassively while someone lay dying: First was that video of pedestrians gawking at the old man getting run down in Hartford, then the nightmare of people pulling over to watch that monster stomp his kid to death by the side of the road in California, and now just today a new report in the Seattle Times of drivers speeding past an accident even as a state trooper was trying to flag them down to help rescue someone who was injured. “Mesmerized by shock,” psychologists say of normal people thrust into a traumatic situation — which brings us to the clip, in which “normal people” are replaced by trained medical professionals and the mesmerization evidently lasts for upwards of 45 minutes. Oh, and did I mention the possibly falsified medical charts? Brace yourself.
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Can’t see it at work and I don’t think I want to.
Bob's Kid on July 1, 2008 at 11:21 AM
omg How sad..what is wrong with people today? Hospital workers not helping?? People sitting there doing nothing??
I’m disgusted! there goes my breakfast…
becki51758 on July 1, 2008 at 11:22 AM
?
abinitioadinfinitum on July 1, 2008 at 11:23 AM
Two rules to always follow…
Never drive down a street, after dark, named after Martin Luther King
And
Never be admitted to a hospital named after Martin Luther King
right2bright on July 1, 2008 at 11:24 AM
speechless
Zetterson on July 1, 2008 at 11:26 AM
That was horrible. I can’t believe the nurse, and the ONLY one who even bothered to check on her, actually nudged the lady with her foot!
Hospitals are becoming one of the fastest growing items here in the U.S., but people with lack of compassion from individuals makes me sick. I hate going to Hospitals and watching this makes me hate them more.
upinak on July 1, 2008 at 11:27 AM
Let’s get more government involved in healthcare. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Good God.
Grantman on July 1, 2008 at 11:27 AM
If we get socialized medicine here, get used to this.
Think_b4_speaking on July 1, 2008 at 11:28 AM
That’s outrageous.
flipflop on July 1, 2008 at 11:30 AM
You can tell a mile away when a shyster lawyer feeds a story to the newsmedia.
Although this is no where NEAR my favorite of the day: the kid-punk in Atlanta who jumped TWO fences to get near the Batman roller-coaster and get himself decapitated. Oh, the lawsuit has already been filed and the newsrooms dripping with tearful relatives: were the fences HIGH ENOUGH? Warnings in ENGLISH ONLY? You’ve got to be kidding! My baby didn’t read! Ooh hoo hoo.
Marcus on July 1, 2008 at 11:31 AM
AP, is the hospital a state run one? I’m not terribly familiar with it, even living in next door CT. The reason I ask is that if it is, is this an argument for universal healthcare or against?
I don’t mean to make light of this woman’s death, which is very sad, but what is more sad is that there was no one there with her to look out for her. A friend. A relative. And when you are without those, you learn that the reliance on the benevolence of strangers is not nearly enough.
Ennuipundit on July 1, 2008 at 11:32 AM
Kings County hospital is a city run hospital under the Health and Hospitals Corporation.
lawhawk on July 1, 2008 at 11:35 AM
This is disgusting. All those people need to be fired and not hired in any medical facility whatsoever.
jencab on July 1, 2008 at 11:37 AM
thanks, lawhawk. Save the video, it would make for a great intro for a question on how would one make universal healthcare work given the failures in municipal and state run health facilities.
Ennuipundit on July 1, 2008 at 11:37 AM
You shouldn’t have to rely on “benevolence” in a hospital. These people are paid to take care of others.
Tanya on July 1, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Exactly, under socialized medicine where there will be three times as many patients (because its “free”) and half the staff because wages will go down and the state will expect slave labor, these scenes will become the norm.
Maxx on July 1, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Recently, Glenn Beck chronicled his indifferent treatment at a hospital.
Bill C on July 1, 2008 at 11:38 AM
jencab, they won’t be fired. they won’t be suspended. they might get transferred. they have a union to protect their jobs on the basis that someone else should have made the decision to intervene.
Ennuipundit on July 1, 2008 at 11:38 AM
I don’t disagree, Tanya, but consider, how many of the people in the general vicinity were trained medical personnel? If it’s like most ER waiting rooms, there’s a few cops, a harried triage nurse and some administrative types. If the triage nurse is busy with people who are bleeding and the administrative typee see someone pass out, their first instinct is the person is probably drunk. I mean from the innocent bystander types.
Ennuipundit on July 1, 2008 at 11:41 AM
AP,
OT but CNN used HA and you and KMA quote in a recent video
http://iimageme.com/images/1p9dwzj9ecdtk9yjxui.jpg
WoosterOh on July 1, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Not all city/state hospitals are unionized. But that would be something to check into for sure.
upinak on July 1, 2008 at 11:42 AM
I am almost nauseous at my own utter lack of surprise.
LimeyGeek on July 1, 2008 at 11:42 AM
Speaking of hospital care, a colleague of mine was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is pretty much 100% fatal. He was an expat from UK, and when it got so that he could not work, we looked into sending him home. Under the national health system in his home country, he was basically going to be treated as last in line, and a lost cause anyway, so would not get treatment. We kept him in the US on LT disability, so he would have access to US health care (primarily pain management). Because we did not send him to a country with socialized medicine, we probably added a year to his life, and his last months were not spent in pain. That speaks loudly against socialized medicine.
Think_b4_speaking on July 1, 2008 at 11:42 AM
Maybe she didn’t belong in a psych ward. Maybe she was showing odd behaviour and agitation because of insult to the brain , which could or even should have been diagnosed and treated in a conventional medical facility.
SarahW on July 1, 2008 at 11:43 AM
I didn’t see medical staff walk by. I would also note she was in a psych waiting area and those people we are seeing ignore her might have psychological problems themselves. That said, how horrible.
Sue on July 1, 2008 at 11:47 AM
I’m a nurse and I’m surprised this doesn’t happen MORE in hospitals. Especially the county run ones.
You’d be surprised how little people who take care of others actually CARE about other people. It’s frightening. They’re just a number or just a diagnosis, not a person with actual problems.
Also why I quit working in the hospitals – way too hard to work and care when others so clearly don’t.
mjk on July 1, 2008 at 11:49 AM
That was a wonderful thing you did. Sending him back to the UK would have been a miserable fate.
LimeyGeek on July 1, 2008 at 11:49 AM
What’s wrong with the three conscious(?) people in the waiting room? Couldn’t somebody at least alert someone at the desk that the woman passed out?
The Left is so fond of bashing the Boy Scouts these days, because the “discriminate” against gays, but if a Scout had been in the waiting room, that woman would have received first aid!
Steve Z on July 1, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Never be admitted to a hospital named after Martin Luther King
right2bright on July 1, 2008 at 11:24 AM
It’s actually named after the county in which it is located, also known as Brooklyn.
jackmac on July 1, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Okay they way this was presented I am assuming she is in an emergency room and that these are normal people around her. Then I clicked on the link and read the story.
If this is correct then she is not there looking for medical treatment, but PSYCHIATRIC treatment. How is anyone to know if she is having medical problems or just acting crazy? I personally am not going to go up to people in a psych ward, because I have no idea what they are there for or what they might do to me if I interrupt them.
JeffinSac on July 1, 2008 at 12:02 PM
They did say it was a psych ward, so maybe the other people in the waiting room were mentally handicapped in some way? That’s about the only explanation I could think of.
joewm315 on July 1, 2008 at 12:02 PM
My beloved girlfriend died because of the absolute inadequacies of the mental health system, in Michigan. I am both horrified, and yet just mildly surprised, to see it claiming yet another life, thanks to indifference and underfunding. Until we say something to our House and Senate about this, don’t be reluctant to say goodbye to your loved ones with serious mental health problems, because they might be next.
Virus-X on July 1, 2008 at 12:04 PM
PUBLIC hospital. Let’s give all the hospitals to the government, eh?
aero on July 1, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Based on my own personal experience, I’m not at all surprised by this.
I’m no lawyer, but it the words “criminal neglect” come to mind when I see this video.
.
GT on July 1, 2008 at 12:07 PM
so you’re exaggerating a bit huh Allah?
-
the old man hit by the car… bystanders called 911 multiple people did.
-
the child being stomped to death… multiple people physically tried to stop the man…
-
don’t act like I don’t read things, don’t treat me like the MSM treats me.
Kaptain Amerika on July 1, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Glad I’m an eagle scout!
folks support scouting!!!
I say this not to brag but to give props to the BSA!!
From the training I recevied I personally have saved 3 peoples lives.
1 gun shot
1 stabbing (with a screw driver no less)
1 guy gets run over by a snowcat
-Wasteland Man.
WastelandMan on July 1, 2008 at 12:13 PM
Link or it didn’t happen
apollyonbob on July 1, 2008 at 12:22 PM
I dont think people are more apothetic I think the mass media is better about making it known.
elBarto on July 1, 2008 at 12:39 PM
What’s your point? This is a clear cut case. No shyster lawyer needed.
According to the video, the doctor who saw the woman and did nothing has already been fired. The other three on staff have been suspended.
A doctor walked into the room, then left it, as did two security guards.
So that explains the other people in the room. It doesn’t explain the paid medical staff.
4 people called. And not a single person did anything else to even block traffic from running over him again.
That’s simply not true. One woman claimed she would have if she’d had a bat or something to hit the man with, but no one physically stopped the man. He was stopped by a cop’s bullet.
Not very much.
Esthier on July 1, 2008 at 12:40 PM
At last, I’ve found a hospital with worse service than the one we go to. My husband was thinking of training to be a nurse, but decided he couldn’t because he cared too much for his own good. Looks like these workers don’t suffer the same problem.
Anna on July 1, 2008 at 12:51 PM
JeffinSac, psychiatric issues almost always have an organic basis for the disturbance. Also, sudden onset of nuttiness or eccentric behaviour can signal not only exacerbation of common psychiatric illness but conditions that are acute medical emergencies.
FWIW, She wasn’t “looking” for psychiatric treatment. She was admitted, according to the linked article, because she exhibited signs of “agitation” which started the previous day. She may have been funneled trhough an ER, or not; she may not have received adquate triage, examination or treatment.
Trained staff in a psych ward ignoring such a collapse, especially in a new admit, is shocking. Medical staff should have been summoned immediately.
And she might not have belonged in that ward at all, but in a conventional hospital. The autopsy may reveal her agitation was caused by an aneurysm or stroke, or infection or tumor, etc.
SarahW on July 1, 2008 at 1:27 PM
Callous disregard aside, I haven’t seen anyone asking the most important question….. Why in America, in the nation’s largest city, is a mentally disturbed woman expected to wait over 24 hours in a waiting area? I’m just surprised that the footage didn’t include the janitorial staff mopping around her prone body!
We’ve all become closed in to our own reality and block stuff like this out. Those drivers in Hartford didn’t stop to help because it wasn’t part of their world- why get involved? Just interrupt the cell phone call long enough to change the radio station and veer around the guy lying in the middle of the street…..
highhopes on July 1, 2008 at 1:38 PM
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=6871329&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1
Pursuant to the Six Flags decapitation- if you read the above MyFoxAtlanta.com story on it, the idiot jumped up at a moving rollercoaster to try to grab someone’s legs. Of course, the family will likely sue Six Flags.
And SarahW- I’m just getting started as a med student, but amen to what you said.
tmi3rd
tmi3rd on July 1, 2008 at 1:43 PM
What? Nanny failed to perfectly take care of someone? I’m shocked! And the answer: “A massive lawsuit“.
jaime on July 1, 2008 at 2:27 PM
Two years ago, when I took my husband to an ER in an upscale small hospital in Marina del Rey, California, there was a man moaning and rolling on the floor. I initially sat there, incredulous that the staff were just ignoring him. When I went to the window to ask for help, I was told that “he’s a hypochondriac and they see him every week or two.” Hypochondriac or not, the man was writhing in pain. I was furious, said as much, made a fuss, and they finally took him into a treatment room. Somehow this video didn’t actually surprise me much. Emergency room, my buttinski!
marybel on July 1, 2008 at 2:46 PM
Tim Burton on July 1, 2008 at 2:51 PM
A brief foretaste of Hillarycare/Obamacare.
whitetop on July 1, 2008 at 2:51 PM
Almost and hour later. Nice. Bring the lawyers.
Geronimo on July 1, 2008 at 2:58 PM
That’s why my girlfriend stopped being a nurse. Too many Haitian nurses that just don’t give a shit and hospital management that don’t care either.
Geronimo on July 1, 2008 at 3:01 PM
Remember, people are inherently good…
Grafted on July 1, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Government Run Healthcare at it’s finest!
Dpet on July 1, 2008 at 3:23 PM
“Let’s get more government involved in healthcare. Yeah, that’s the ticket.” Yep.
My dad, who is a retired GP, is for socialized health care, but the strange thing is: he’s against torture. He even thinks that most of the goons in GITMO are completely innocent and that no one really performs partial birth abortion unless the child is a ‘monster’ causing harm to the mother.
Christine on July 1, 2008 at 3:24 PM
I saw this tape this morning on another web site. This copy doesn’t show the fat security guy on his office chair wheeling his large butt out from behind the wall on the lower righthand side of the screen. He takes a look at the woman and wheels his large behind back off screen, never once leaving the chair to help her or call for help.
UnEasyRider on July 1, 2008 at 3:34 PM
That the doctor has only been fired but can continue to practise is a sure sign that this kind of thing will continue to happen. At the very least they should take his medical liscesse away for a couple of years.
None of the outlined changes would make much difference. More staff that do the same thing won’t help this kind of situation. The staff doesn’t need more training. They already know what they should be doing but there is nothing in the system that will give meaningful consequences to anyone who does not do what they should. Checks every 15 minutes are already the standard of care in such a situation but in a system like this they would just check off the body on the floor every 15 minutes. I’ve seen cases where someone was checked off as present on the unit when it later became known that they had escaped from the locked psych unit many hours before. In every case some one had signed off the checks and had gotten no more than a talking to. But why hold just a single individual at the lowest level responsible: when such things continue to repeatedly happen in a system it is because everyone in the chain of command has accepted and continues to accept such behavior as acceptable. Any fix that does not take change throughout the chain of command seriously is doomed to failure and repetition of the behavior. As a nurse who usually felt very underpaid, unions had an allure but, since they reinforce so much bad behavior, I continue to see them as fatal to patient care.
snaggletoothie on July 1, 2008 at 3:44 PM
It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder if we’re witness to the death of America and our culture as we’ve known it…
Wyznowski on July 1, 2008 at 3:47 PM
A terrible situation I agree. Please do not automatically assume the employee is a nurse. Typically one nurse assumes responsibiolity for dozens of patients while the eyes and ears within contact are minimally trained and paid technicians who are too limited in number to be effective. The first solution offered is to increase staffing which is a move in the right direction but seldom lasts long. High paid administrators (such as Michelle Obama) may lose jobs if staffing for patient care is adequate. Nurses (LPNs and RNs) burn out quickly because of the impossible situations of heavy workload, seriously ill patients and staffing which is kept at a bare minimum. One patienmt can keep a care giver busy for an hour so nobody is available to check on the other patients assigned. It is the “bean counters” who decide staffing levels and this unfortunate situation is the result. As a former RN with an MSN, I thank God I have retired and no longer have to face giving less than good care because the demands are so unrealistic. I worked for years at a salary commensurate with a H.S. grad working as a secretary. In my last years, when pay increased the staffing decreased and the technology and severity of illness of patients increased due to rapid discharge of convalescing patients. Government regulations require large numbers to administer the business end. Patient care gets the short end.
Pat in NC on July 1, 2008 at 4:31 PM
What a shock, black people treating others as meaningless trash. This is such a big surprise.
The race that draws a paycheck from guilt while holding up their middle finger to the people who give it to them.
I am surpised one of them didn’t see if she had some money on her.
revolution on July 1, 2008 at 6:12 PM
Pat
You seem to be arguing that no one can be held responsible. But if a nurse spends an hour with someone when other patients need care, that nurse needs to develop more realistic priorities. If unliscensed staff are given responsibilities they are not capable of handling, they were given those rersponsibilities by a liscensed person who is responsible for the assignmrnt that endangers patients. Acting like personal and professional responsibility is some weird hold over from the 1950s will only ensure more incidents like this.
snaggletoothie on July 1, 2008 at 6:22 PM
And what does this have to do with this story. Brooklyn is in Kings County. That’s how the hospital got it’s name. Racism, the fruit of ignorance.
Zaire67 on July 1, 2008 at 11:48 PM
It’s nothing to do with America – per se.
OldEnglish on July 2, 2008 at 5:14 AM
As Deep Throat said “Follow the money”.
Then we will know the true cause of her death.
Helloyawl on July 2, 2008 at 5:22 AM
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