US:Woman collapses+ dies in hospital waiting room. No one bothers to help for an hour

[Dillinger4]

my point was that this happens 10,000 times per day all over the world but when it happens in the US then all of a sudden its news-worthy

*facepalm*

 

[JHE]

I've seen someone face-down in an A&E waiting room in a UK hospital and no-one took any notice. They did come and take him off after about 45 minutes, but the intervening time looked pretty similar to that video.

As I feared, it can happen here. What part of the country was that in, Fruitloop?




I really don't think this has anything to do with the Yank system of private insurance versus our system funded out of general taxation. It's about a sort of callousness, a lack of normal social solidarity and/or a feeling that it is imprudent, even dangerous, to get involved. That exists in some places over there in Yankland AND in some places here.



Now that I come to think of it, years ago when I worked in Whitechapel, where there were quite a lot of destitute drunks, I sometimes stepped over men on the pavement outside the London Hospital without checking whether they were alive or not.

 

[Belushi]

my point was that this happens 10,000 times per day all over the world but when it happens in the US then all of a sudden its news-worthy

Can you imagine why? something to do with being the richest country on earth maybe.

 

[fela fan]

As I feared, it can happen here. What part of the country was that in, Fruitloop?




I really don't think this has anything to do with the Yank system of private insurance versus our system funded out of general taxation. It's about a sort of callousness, a lack of normal social solidarity and/or a feeling that it is imprudent, even dangerous, to get involved. That exists in some places over there in Yankland AND in some places here.



Now that I come to think of it, years ago when I worked in Whitechapel, where there were quite a lot of destitute drunks, I sometimes stepped over men on the pavement outside the London Hospital without checking whether they were alive or not.

Good post, getting to the bones of it all now.

The question, everywhere, is how much care do people have for strangers in their lives? The second related question is, if they do care, do they put themselves in danger?

 

[treelover]

DC said
so what? people die all the time in the streets of third world countries and no one gives a shit

Speak for yourself, many of us including folk here on Urban help support NGO's etc, in the third world, etc


the US system is a disgrace and slowly it is coming here, why are politicians so obssessed with the american way of doing things, Sicko has shown us the future

 

[fela fan]

Speak for yourself, many of us including folk here on Urban help support NGO's etc, in the third world, etc


the US system is a disgrace and slowly it is coming here, why are politicians so obssessed with the american way of doing things, Sicko has shown us the future

It's the march of the accountants mate, they take over everything in a system of out-of-control rampant capitalism.

The politicians just have to kow-tow. The 'democratic' system we have is a sham. Profit is far more important than mere human beings.

It's the bottom line. What's spreading from the US into the UK is also spreading all over the world. It's the great US export for the rest of us.

Of course it stinks, but that's where we are at the minute.

 

[bleepin_tired]

Blimey. What kind of hospital is this?

I'm thinking a metropolitan one, understaffed underpaid and overworked.

As bad as our mental health system is, thank fuck it is not as bad as that (though of course they do want it to be more US in style ). To be in a situation where one your ideal goals is to get the waiting time to ten hours is beyond words really.

I've waited the better part of a day for my car to be repaired. To be uninsured and wait 10 hours (in a non emergency situation) would be to me (being as I've done it) a small price for something infinitely more important than my car.

What a nightmare, waiting 24 hours !! and then dying in the waiting room and no one noticing ..

Outrageous.

This cannot be in any country that calls itself civilised!

Uncivilised acts occur on a daily basis in most "civilised" countries. To draw false comfort or unwarranted pride in the supposed superiority of one's own country by comparison to another's would seem an almost American-like patriotic folly.

I don't doubt it tbf. It's a fucking horrific & shameful system of healthcare.

Is it not fair to say that the staff who opt to work in the public health sector there are hugely under pressure though, even more than they are here?


I recall watching a documentary in the late 70's/early 80's about a US 'City Hospital' (can't remember which city...Chicago maybe? New York!?)...it totally freaked me out....people being refused treatment because they had no health insurance and homeless people living in the (relatively warm) corridors that ran underneath the hospital....just this vast building of despair and all the while, the people who'd opted to do public health work were running hard to keep up (when private health work was easy to obtain, loads better paid and far less stressful).

Other than the refusing of treatment it sounds like Chicago's Cook County Hospital which has a world reputation. It sits a stone's throw away from crime ridden housing projects; It's trauma unit unit has been likened to a middle east war zone- in fact they've trained people who go to war zones. It may be this? Another article goes further into Cook County, and America's dire uninsured problem. Am probably on about a different program though.

This is completely normal news from the freest most democratic most glorious most civilised nation on the planet.

What they reall are good at is saying one thing and doing the other.

This story illustrates the lack of humanity that exists within a rampantly out of control capitalist society.

Yes and then what would this quote below prove?

I've seen someone face-down in an A&E waiting room in a UK hospital and no-one took any notice. They did come and take him off after about 45 minutes, but the intervening time looked pretty similar to that video.

Something about glass houses maybe.

The sad thing is that the big US health companies and their Republican friends appear to have convinced a sizeable proportion of the American Public that 'socialised medicine' is the first step towards turning the US into Soviet Russia.

Horseshit. Do you think that someone who purposely seeks a job based upon it's health coverage at risk of facing decreased salary is convinced? More like resigned. More wrapping the population up with it's government and corporations and calling it all one and the same.

I really dont think it could happen here, not with so many staff walking in and walking out again.
Not with so many people sitting watching in the waiting room. Some one somewhere would have raised the alarm. Resources and time are not so stretched (yet) and our NHS staff are not so jaded to leave someone laying face down on the floor...'oh someone else will deal with it.'

Now had it been in a residential home that would be another thing entirely...

It can happen anywhere as Fruitloop's statement testifies. Understaffed. Overworked. Underpaid. Read that three times and allow it to sink in. That is all it takes.

*facepalm*

I think Detrot City's statement had more to do with the worn down replies to all things American. It gets predictable. And to presume his comment reflect the majority reaction to that news story *across the pond* would be a grave error. More than a few have family where the stakes could easily be just as high as what happened to that person now deceased. The only people crowing about our health care are those who can afford it.

 

[d.a.s.h]

I once had an asthma attack after accidentally inhaling some of the mist from a spray disinfectant. I got a cab to the hospital and was in a bad way on arrival, only able to walk very slowly and almost unable to speak due to shortness of breath. I tried telling the receptionist at A&E that I needed help but could only speak very quietly in between gasps and had to lean forward onto the reception desk as I felt I would fall over otherwise.

She completely ignored me and carried on absent-mindedly fiddling with some desk clutter. Luckily a member of public told her in no uncertain terms to pull her effing finger out and get me seen to quick. This was in London. My general experience of the NHS has been positive but there are some gormless types around nonetheless.