Comments on: Video: Death in the waiting room

By: Helloyawl

Helloyawl — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:22:55 +0000

As Deep Throat said “Follow the money”.

Then we will know the true cause of her death.

By: OldEnglish

OldEnglish — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:14:09 +0000

Wyznowski on July 1, 2008 at 3:47 PM

It’s nothing to do with America – per se.

By: Zaire67

Zaire67 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:48:07 +0000

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

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.

By: snaggletoothie

snaggletoothie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:22:55 +0000

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.

By: revolution

revolution — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:12:34 +0000

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.

By: Pat in NC

Pat in NC — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:31:08 +0000

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.

By: Wyznowski

Wyznowski — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:47:34 +0000

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…

By: snaggletoothie

snaggletoothie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:44:42 +0000

According to the video, the doctor who saw the woman and did nothing has already been fired.

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.

By: UnEasyRider

UnEasyRider — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:34:39 +0000

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.

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:24:47 +0000

“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.

By: Dpet

Dpet — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:23:44 +0000

Government Run Healthcare at it’s finest!

By: Grafted

Grafted — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:03:12 +0000

Remember, people are inherently good…

By: Geronimo

Geronimo — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:01:30 +0000

My husband was thinking of training to be a nurse, but decided he couldn’t because he cared too much for his own good.
Anna on July 1, 2008 at 12:51 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.

By: Geronimo

Geronimo — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:58:39 +0000

Almost and hour later. Nice. Bring the lawyers.

By: whitetop

whitetop — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:51:25 +0000

A brief foretaste of Hillarycare/Obamacare.

By: Tim Burton

Tim Burton — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:51:03 +0000

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

By: marybel

marybel — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:46:24 +0000

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!

By: jaime

jaime — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:27:28 +0000

What? Nanny failed to perfectly take care of someone? I’m shocked! And the answer: “A massive lawsuit“.

By: tmi3rd

tmi3rd — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:43:17 +0000

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

By: highhopes

highhopes — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:38:37 +0000

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…..

By: SarahW

SarahW — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:27:54 +0000

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

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.

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:51:08 +0000

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.

By: Esthier

Esthier — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:40:23 +0000

Marcus on July 1, 2008 at 11:31 AM

What's your point? This is a clear cut case. No shyster lawyer needed.

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

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.

I didn’t see medical staff walk by. Sue on July 1, 2008 at 11:47 AM

A doctor walked into the room, then left it, as did two security guards.

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

So that explains the other people in the room. It doesn't explain the paid medical staff.

the old man hit by the car… bystanders called 911 multiple people did.

4 people called. And not a single person did anything else to even block traffic from running over him again.

the child being stomped to death… multiple people physically tried to stop the man…

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.

so you’re exaggerating a bit huh Allah?

Not very much.

By: elBarto

elBarto — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:39:08 +0000

I dont think people are more apothetic I think the mass media is better about making it known.

By: apollyonbob

apollyonbob — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:22:14 +0000

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

Link or it didn’t happen