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July 3, 2008, 5:09 pm
Flag as Inappropriate John  

I have seen it all over the news, YouTube, and other internet sites, the video of a patient at Kings County Hospital in NY, collapsing on the floor and who later died. She was on the floor in the waiting room for 45 minutes without anyone helping her. It is outrageous and disgraceful - but is this an isolated case?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FOCpOZ4txvs&feature=related

I saw this as well, this is one thing that is horrible about the media and the internet. That is a person, and her kids/grandkids/husband are dealing with enough. They shouldn't have to see their family member dying everywhere they turn. I agree it is both an outrage and a disgrace. I would like to think this is an isolated incodent, but I am sure things like this happen all the time, this was just the one they caught on tape.

It was absolutely disgusting. The fact that the guard looked at her so many times and just chose to ignore is just indescribable. I hope that they are sued to the fullest extent possible.

I agree. This is completely rediculous. Hopefully this will put other hospitals on their toes so they will be more prompt in responding to such problems.

This is unbelievable but I am afraid it is not an isolated case. My son recently cut open the back of his head when he fell into the brick on our fireplace (he was 13 months at the time) and they through we were going to wait in the waiting room (mind you, he is still bleeding quite a bit at this point). I had to demand to see a dr. right then and there!

I agree, hospital emergency rooms are, sad to say, not the best place to get immediate care! I have heard stories of people calling 911 from ERs when deathly ill people were ignored by hospital staff.

My now-9 year old son was not ignored, but was terribly misdiagnosed in a hospital ER when he was 3. He was running a fever of 105, coughing to point of vomiting, having trouble breathing, etc. He has asthma and that was known at the time, he had also fought one bought of pnemonia after another all that winter. Of course he got sick again on a Friday evening when the only option was the ER. (We didn't have any urgent care clinics here at that time.) The stupid ER doctor said he had an ear infection and a "mild" asthma attack and prescribed some antibiotics, which of course he couldn't even begin to keep down due to the couging/vomiting cycle. After a long stressful weekend of managing to keep his temp down and a small amount of fluid down (all undone by him spending Sunday evening at his dad's house) I got him to our regular doc first thing Monday morning. By this time he had been running a 103-105 temp all weekend and it was up to 106 on that morning. He was lethargic and very very sick. The doc immediately admitted him to the hospital where he stayed for a week and a half. He had one lung nearly 1/2 full of pnemonia and the other had a bit. They ran test after test, and gave him an iv with antibiotics but it didn't help any. They finally decided that he had viral pnemonia, so they started anit-virals by iv which started to help almost immediately. He was severly dehydrated by the time he was admitted and spent the next 2 days sleeping almost all the time. He nearly died because of that misdiagnosis...and the craziest part is...he didn't even HAVE an ear infection at all!!

That is rediculous. Both cases. I am an ethicist and I did a lot of work on medical ethics when I was doing my grad work. It's terrible when things like this happen and it could be helped. It's things like this that make me understand why healthcare in America is so sue-happy.

This is very disturbing to start with. I have seen ER patients end up waiting for a long time to be seen, but I have never seen anything like this before.