Outraged and ill

Oh that is just horrible!

I can't imagine .... bet everyone is running around blaming someone else rather than taking any responsibility

I saw a very small segment of that on the news last night. So sad, so infuriating... that people can be so completely heartless, completely blind.

In my opinion every single nurse and physician bears full and ultimate responsibility.

Debbie - I know that there are countless medical professionals who have seen this and felt the same as you. It is incomprehensible to a dedicated nurse such as yourself that a patient could be so severely neglected. I can only hope that some good will come of this so that it may never happen again.

I didn't know you were a nurse, Debbie. So am I.

I feel your outrage and revulsion. I've had more than my share of burn-out with the field lately. This is only another reason to shake my head and head to the garden.

Never leave the nursing profession Debbie, even after reading this article! You are exactly the type that would attend to ALL needs and people. This nurse was a horrible person but that could of turned out differently if someone like you was there to care for her needs! I have always believed some people are meant to be nurses and others are not. I still can pick those nurses out to this day! Being a nurse you possibly know what I"m talking about? For this woman that passed away so horribly I pray for her family to seek comfort from Him.

God grant all of us a healthy stay whenever we may need to visit a hospital, and may none of us ever to visit this poor, benighted institution. I deplore the conditions that caused this neglect, and may their problems, of which there appear to be many, be solved to prevent a similar occurrence ever again.

I saw this on the news...and it is horrible.

I am not one who screems for blood when things like his happen but some one or a collection of someones should go to jail for al0ng time. This was not an accident, this was depraved indifference.

Someone needs to take responsibility for this..every single person who did nothing to help this woman should be charged, the nurses and doctors need to have their licenses taken away...

John, I so agree. Criminal negligence.

Every person, every single one of us should horrified about the situation. This was a hospital already known to be in violation and patients were considered to be "in immediate jeopardy" and their ER doors remained open.

I go to Kaiser. The techs all drive beat-up ratty cars as they pay off their student loans. The Doctors drive mid-size sedans as they pay off their med-school loans. The admin, well lets see, I know two of them through my daughter, one drives a lexus and has a nice cabin (more of a second home on the lake) and the other, a bit younger, drives that beamer sports car.
Oh, the first, she has her AA. I don't know about the second. But thats how an HMO works; the penny-pincher-procedure-denying admins get the big bucks.

But, hey, your employer is happy at how the HMO keeps down costs.

I can't believe what I've just read. I can't believe that even after they saw her throwing up blood that no one did anything to help her. What a disgrace!!

I can understand your disgust, Debbie. I commented on a couple articles about this yesterday. As a nurse, I am wondering if she was ever triaged or did she not get past the admitting personnel? I would like to know the exact scenario. Did not a single employee SEE what was going on? Did not a single person have a BRAIN or an ounce of compassion? It is so incredibly disturbing and then there is the police aspect that they were taking her in to CUSTODY at a time like this!!!

I agree with the people above, though. YOU cannot leave nursing as we need the caring people to stay behind.

At least I am confident that if she had come to the ER where I work she would have been seen.

Outrageous.....! This is absolutely outrageous.

I thank the powers that be that this would never happen at Hilo Medical Center. I have been there to their ER several times - including recently after my fall going down to the stream below our house - and I have never seen anyone, no matter if they looked as if they had no problem, be ignored or turned away!

How anyone can turn their back on something like this or ignore obvious suffering is beyond my comprehension...!

this is absolutely outrageous. Why aren't there more things being done about places like this?

Outrageous is right. Hopefully there will be a full investigation done by an outside party.

And it appears that this story is opening the way to expose yet more abuses. It sounds like they didn't have qualified medical care on staff and that those standing around had no idea what to do.

I'm sitting here trying to sort out the jumble of feelings that arose as I read this tragic story--shock, anger, outrage, disgust, grief, compassion, a deep sadness, incomprehension, helplessness. . . . How could so many people ignore her plight, which was visible?

Debbie, you with your skills, empathy, compassion and appropriate anger are making a difference.

Thank you, Verie.

Thank you everyone who cared and followed the link to read the story.

I totally agree! It was horrible to let that poor woman suffer in such a way and just let her die! What is wrong with our country! Whatever happened to human kindness and compassion?
This is not only a question of kindness though. This is their job and if they don't want to help people they need to find a different occupation!

I saw this on Nanct Grace last night and I just couldn't believe it. What a sad occurrence.

Leave? When the cream of the crop leave, we are left with uncaring the automatons who would let a woman die and do nothing.

I checked the link you offered. It does not say WHY this one patient was intentionally ignored/rejected, even unto the point of her death. I assume other patients were processed throughout this time. Should I assume that the hospital administration knew about this and condoned this action? What possible reason could there be to initiate this 'shut-out' of a sick patient in the first place? I mean, why pick her? And why would ALL the hospital personnel go along with it?

Regarding your leaving, what would you be leaving? Your whole life is invested in nursing. You would be leaving yourself. And when would be the best time for you to leave the nursing profession? When the quality of patient care is at its highest and, in fact, your actions have contributed to those high standards, and you can walk away without any qualms or regrets? Or when patient care is at its lowest, the profession may be causing more harm than good, and your fellow nursing professionals are looking to you for guidance?

Maybe those feelings of nausea and outrage are the strongest signals God can send you to take action and help to resolve these issues. And the Debbie I have known for half my life has never walked away from a challenge, or a signal from God. Yes?

Un-freaking-believable. But don't you quit. We need more like you, not less.

My strong, and immediate reaction to divorce myself from the profession has passed.
Of course I will stay. I apologise for that portion of my reaction, but only for that portion.
If and when my health allows my return to work, in whatever capacity I am able to serve, I will serve.
The forward thinking state of Ma, anticipating the worsening nursing shortage sent out a survey a couple of years while I was there asking nurses if they would be willing to come out of retirement, and function from a wheelchair if necessary to supervise unlicensed and licensed caregivers. I answered yes. We will see what accomadations states are willing to make in order to make it possible to deliver safe care during times of crisis.
This has nothing to do with the horrible inaction that led to the death of this woman on the floor of an ER. Such an atrocity is criminal and there can be no mitigating circumstances in my opinion.

I'd heard about this yesterday and found it unbelievable. And weren't there some other people there (patients, I mean) who tried to get someone at the front desk to come over and help the lady? The patients were more concerned than the staff on duty that night. Can there be a good enough reason for that (in and of itself) to happen - much less the 911 issue. Don't understand - however, someday, it could happen to me, or someone I love/care about. Thanks for posting Debbie.

I have read that this hospital has had this happen more than once. I would hope they could shut it down, it would be safer to take the longer drive to another hospital than to go to that one.

Toni, I agree. If that ER had been closed until necessary changes were made that woman might be alive today.

I have to agree with you Debbie; Every nurse and physician bears full and ultimate responsibility, as do the police and janitors and the other people around her ... there is no reason why this woman should have died and they should have their lic. pulled immediately.

Blessings