King-Harbor Hospital in Los Angeles (formerly King/Drew) has had more than its share of problems. What happened there to Edith Rodriguez on May 9, however, is so obscene that the hospital no longer deserves to have Dr. Martin Luther King as its namesake. The reason why this story isn't as big or bigger than the Rodney King beating is beyond me.
From the AP story:
A woman who lay bleeding on the emergency room floor of a troubled inner-city hospital died after 911 dispatchers refused to contact paramedics or an ambulance to take her to another facility, newly released tapes of the emergency calls reveal.
Okay, so she was already at the hospital. No sense in wasting emergency resources, right?
Wrong.
...
Relatives said Rodriguez was bleeding from the mouth and writhing in pain for 45 minutes while she was at a hospital waiting area. Experts have said she could have survived had she been treated early enough.
Wow, 45 minutes on the floor bleeding from her mouth? That's pretty shocking, but it was probably a mistake, right? They were just too busy, right?
Wrong.
...
...she died as police were wheeling her out of the hospital after the officers they had asked to help Rodriguez arrested her instead on a parole violation.
You can't be serious. Police actually arrested a woman who was dying on the floor of a hospital awaiting medical attention? Have the cops been arrested yet?
From the ABC News story, a portion of one of two 911 calls:
911 Operator: "What's wrong with her?," the 911 operator asked.
Prado: "She's vomiting blood."
The operator then questions why hospital officials are not helping Rodriguez.
Prado: "They're watching her and they're not doing anything. Just watching her."
She's vomiting blood? And they're just watching? And the police arrested a woman who was vomiting blood in a hospital???
I wonder if she'd have been charged with resisting arrest if she'd survived.
It gets worse. Here's some dialogue from the second call:
"I cannot do anything for you for the quality of the hospital there," the operator says. "This line is for emergency purposes only."
"May [God] strike you too for acting the way you are," the caller responds. The operator says, "No negative, ma'am. You're the one."
Okay, so the 911 operator's gonna get fired, right?
The supervisor of that second dispatcher said his tone on the call was inappropriate.
His tone was inappropriate? His tone was inappropriate?
The medical director of the hospital has been ousted for his handling of an unrelated lapse in patient care.
An unrelated lapse?
From the LA Times:
At one point, a janitor cleaned around her.
Oh. My. God.
And this, from the AP again, sums it all up:
Her death was ruled accidental by the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
It's time to take Dr. King's name off that hospital. And then can we fire and arrest everyone who had a chance to help Edith Rodriguez and did not? This is the petition.