Monday, June 18, 2007

Where's Michael Moore?

We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.
George Eliot (1819–80), novelist

Once again the work ethic and compassion of the employees of Martin Luther King Jr. –Harbor Hospital came through loud and clear as they let Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, die in the emergency room. Others waiting in the ER watching in horror called 911, but to no avail as the operators at 911 couldn’t comprehend that no one was helping them in the ER.

The janitor mopped up the blood Rodriquez had vomited, but he too did nothing. Her death, according to the story in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times, said she might have been saved had she received treatment for her perforated bowel.

The blame was placed on the nightshift nurse Linda Ruttlen, the janitor and four others who ignored pleads for help. The punishment thus far has been a letter of reprimand and referred to the state nursing board for investigation. I wonder if Ruttlen or the others will even get the amount of jail time that Paris Hilton received?

4 comments:

Jack Steiner said...

Martin Luther King Jr. –Harbor Hospital

That hospital is a complete disaster.

Anonymous said...

The Kitty Genovese award for depraved indifference goes to: Linda Ruttlen!
Any sufficiently advanced level of incompetence is indistinguisalble from malice.

Chandira said...

Oh. My. God.

That sounds more like English customer service.. Seriously, that is f***ing unbelievable.. Ooh, so sad. I hope those relatives manage to sue for millions. I'm usually against that, but that would be justified, although justice for that could never be done.

Anonymous said...

The County Board of Supervisors needs to release the hospital security video.