Shocked and Appalled

In case you haven't heard:

(June 13, 2007)--Newly-released 911 tapes show a woman died in a Los Angeles area hospital emergency room after doctors ignored her and 911 dispatchers would not arrange her transport to another facility.

Now King Harbor Hospital is under fire.

Some former patients are defending it but not the family members of 43 year old Edith Isabel Rodriguez.

Last month the mother of three was left to die on the floor of the emergency room lobby when no one would help her.

Her boyfriend, Jose Prado, made a frantic call to 911 from a hospital pay phone as she lay dying.

Now those 911 tapes have been released.

Prado used a translator to speak to the dispatcher.

When he got no help he hung up.

A few minutes later, a Good Samaritan tried 911 again.

Tape transcripts show the two saying that hospital staff were ignoring Rodriguez while she vomited blood and writhed in pain for 45 minutes in the hospital waiting area.

Dispatchers said paramedics would not come to move Rodriguez to another hospital.

Instead, they suggested contacting hospital administrators and security, who then arrested Rodriguez for a parole violation.

She died on her way out of the hospital.

Experts say Rodriguez could have survived if she had been treated early enough for her perforated bowel.

After listening to the tapes, Los Angeles County Supervisors called the hospital's actions a moral and human breakdown.

The incident is the latest high-profile lapse at King-Harbor, formerly known as King/Drew.

State authorities are investigating the death, and last week federal inspectors gave the hospital 23 days to shape up or risk losing federal funding.

I find this ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. I am so angry that this happened. I am filled with sadness for this womans family and filled with fury for all the parties that ignored this poor womans suffering. I have a particular hatred for the male 911 operator that berated the woman calling-she was trying to get help for this woman-she was already in the er for something totally unrelated and was probably distressed enough over her own illness(or one of her loved ones) and she had enough compassion to call 911 for this woman that lay DYING on the floor and the f*ing 911 operator has the nerve to give her ATTITUDE. I have no sympathy for this man. No understanding. Nothing.