Yep our Healthcare system is just fine..

There is no way this type of crap should ever happen in this country.. unreal.

Caught on tape: Hospital patient left to die
Emergency room staffers ignored 49-year-old woman who fell to the floor
MSNBC News Services
updated 9:27 a.m. CT, Tues., July. 1, 2008

NEW YORK - Video from a surveillance camera at a Brooklyn hospital shows a woman dying on the floor of a psychiatric emergency room while people nearby ignore her.

The video was released Monday by lawyers suing Kings County Hospital alleging neglect and abuse of mental health patients at the facility.

The video shows the 49-year-old woman keeling over and falling out of her chair on June 19 and lying facedown on the floor, then thrashing before going still. About an hour passed before someone realized what was happening and tried to help.

"It's an emergency room, it's not a bus terminal," said Attorney Robert Cohen, of Kirkland & Ellis. "People who are in desperate need of services, care and attention come here to be treated and to get better. They don't come here to die alone."

While the videotape showed that she was on the floor at 6 a.m., the New York Civil Liberties Union said hospital records were filed stating that she was "awake up and alert” at that very time.

"We were absolutely appalled to get medical documentation kept in accordance with New York state law which was completely contradicted by video surveillance feeds," said Beth Haroules, staff counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Last year advocates sued KCH, calling its psychiatric ward a “chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger.”

At the time, the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation refuted those claims. But now with the security video, city officials have launched an investigation into whether the woman's medical records had been altered and have fired or suspended half a dozen staffers — including the doctor, the nurse and the two security guards shown on the tape.

The agency that runs the municipal hospital — the city's Health and Hospitals Corp. — fired several staffers, including a doctor who is seen on the tape, as a result.

An HHC spokeswoman said the agency has also increased staff and training and agreed to monitor psychiatric patients every 15 minutes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25475759/?GT1=43001

Wow ...

this was in the news awhile back. sad when its in the emergency room and people literally had to walk around her to get through the hall.

If there wouldn't have been video, this would have been swept under the rug and forgot about.

A few years ago, i was visiting an elderly man in a local nursing home........i went to get him some water, and i walked by an old lady's room, and saw her on the floor next to her bed. And the "alarm" light and buzzer was going off at the same time. I got down by the nurses station, and there were 4 of them just yacking away. I said "Is anyone going to help the old lady on the floor?" And it was like i woke them up out of a sound sleep. They looked at me, and i said "Her alarm is going off!" They went "Oh....thank you" and they went down to help her.
How long would she have layed there had i not brought it to their attention? I hope i never end up in one of those places. I haven't seen a good one yet. It sickens me to think about it.

And that, my friend, is why I want to die at home, NOT in a nursing home.

My wife and I have already talked about it and decided that our parents will never be put in a nursing home. She worked at one in high school and said she felt like she was working in an animal shelter because of the way the staff treated the people living there.

We took care of our parents till they died. But we have no kids.........if i get too old to take care of myself, i'm screwed.

The sad thing is they treat animals in some animal shelters better than they treat a lot of people in nursing homes. I know it was a comedy, but watch Bubba Ho-tep. The first 20 minutes was hard to watch because of the way they treated people in the nursing home Elvis and JFK were in.

I was walking a month ago and ran across an old lady in a nursing home that was just chillin' outside. One of the employees went up to her, yelled at her for 10 minutes, then helped her back inside. That is NOT how I want to die.

over here we have free health care but its shambolic! I pay 700 euro a year for private, you seriously cant trust our system anymore.

As bad as our system is, you get what you pay for. I don't trust socialized medicine, but then again, I'd hate to be poor in our system.

hence the motivation to not be poor. Socialized medicine will only widen the class gap. down with Obama and socialism.

Bubba Ho-tep is great. I'll watch just about anything with Bruce Campbell in it.

Love Bruce Campbell....all thre way back to Briscoe County Jr.

The hot blonde sisters in the show are my old neighbors......multi-time Miss Universe Corey Everson, and Miss Fitness USA Cameo Kneuer.

Hubba, hubba!!

Dude rocks in the new show Burn Notice.

Heh. I watched that movie just because Bruce Campbell was in it. Army of Darkness is one of my all-time faves.

The problem isn't the health-care system - it's the emergency room, its staff and its management. There should be top-to-bottom firings and - as much as I loathe myself for saying this - lawsuits.

Pack93z, I don't know if your intent was to suggest that we need socialized health care, but if it was, I can tell you unequivocably that you are wrong.

Staffing an emergency room with government employees is like staffing a fire department with quadriplegics. And I know. As a retired vet, I've been to several VA clinics and I can tell you they all SUCK. They're full of incompetent, underpaid underachievers who couldn't care less about the people they're treating. As long as I can afford otherwise, I will never go back to another one.

Government-managed health care would be a nightmare.

Oh make no mistake about it.. that is not what I am suggestion in the least.. just that our health care model and those that look after it seem to be slipping just as much if not worse than the rest of the country.

To allow someone to die without lifting a finger in a hospital.. that would be like the leaders of a country letting a energy crisis go without.. wait that is a no no.. hmmm it is just beyond belief.

I love this country.. but sometimes events happen here that are unreal for a country that we have the potential to be.

Government managed anything is a nightmare.

Thats because they never have to answer for their ineptness. *

Edited by AADP - getting a tad too political.

PS - I agree cheesey, I'm shocked Matt Millen and his staff never answer for their ineptness.

Here's to another 20 years of Matt Millen running the show in Detroit! :chug:

... dropped his drawers and got a...you know what....while on duty, from a worker under him (pun intended) ... *

* Edited by AADP - a tad too political there. But that line was hilarious, I didn't have the heart to take it out. LOL @ "pun intended"

Well I'm not always the most patriotic but one thing I'm proud of up here is our health care. It's not perfect either but I believe it's one of the best in the world. Also have to disagree about the nursing homes at least in my area. My mom works there and doesn't need the money but does it cause she loves working with elderly people and from the way she talks many of the workers there are the same way. I guess you always got your good and bad

Thats true.........there are good and bad. The place i was talking about is a BEAUTIFUL place, and to look at it no one would think that kind of stuff is going on there. I wouldn't have thought so, had i not witnessed it myself.

Django..........i didn't mean to pick on the fact you are a "lefty". I have many friends that are leftys too. It's always easier to talk about that stuff when you are face to face. Then things don't get misunderstood. I used Ted Kennedy as an example because what he did and got awat with was so over the top. To kill someone and not be held accountable just blows my mind. I liked President Kennedy, and he was way more conservative then alot of so called "conservatives" today. There are some democrats i really respect. Joe Lieberman (i think i spelled his name right) is one i respect alot.
As far as your evolution beliefs, i don't mean to attack you on that. We can disagree and remain civil. I was brought up in a school system that teaches that, and when i questioned anything, all i ever got was the runaround. Never a REAL answer. So i chose to believe what the Bible says. But thats the great thing about America......we have the right to decide what we want to believe, without fear of being put to death for it.

how many times do i have to slap your hand cheesey...don't discuss politics here gentlemen.