Man Found Dead on Hospital Lounge Couch

[UsaPride]

This is horrible!

Man Found Dead on Hospital Lounge Couch
MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) - A man was found dead on a couch in a hospital lounge, and a nurse told police that nobody had checked on him for at least 17 hours because he appeared to be asleep.
Robert F. Johnson, 55, who had emphysema, was found Thursday at Southwest General Health Center, police said. It was not clear when he died; an autopsy was planned.
Police Chief John Maddox said Johnson probably had been dead for several hours and most likely died of natural causes.
``It's just unbelievable,'' his wife, Robin Johnson, said Friday. ``Somebody out at the hospital didn't notice that a man was laying there for such a long period of time and not moving? Why didn't anybody check?''
A hospital spokeswoman, Kelly Stanford, declined to comment on the death. ``It's an unfortunate situation, but we're cooperating fully with all levels of investigation,'' Stanford said.
Nurse Lynette Chihil discovered Thursday morning that Johnson was dead. She told police that Johnson, who was fully dressed and curled with his face buried in a cushion, was discolored and cold, and that she had seen him on the same couch 17 hours earlier. Another nurse said she saw a man reclining on the couch late Wednesday.
Robin Johnson said she had not seen her husband since he left home Monday morning after an argument. Police believe he camped out at the hospital rather than return home.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news...LS&idq=/ff/story/0001/20040724/1209895702.htm
There was a lady from my grandparents church that went to the hospital for chest pains. She sat in the waiting room for hours and she died sitting right there waiting to be seen. So sad!

 

[dilloduck]

I worked that the ER here in Austin and saw it happen. So many people use the ER for incredibly minor problems that the place got packed. Many would come at night because the day shift was more likely to send them to a clinic where they would have to wait even longer. Most have no insurance and therefore wait in the welfare line for treatment. A deadly combination of poverty and ignorance.

 

[UsaPride]

My husband pulled shifts in the ER too when he was an EMT. Maybe it's just our hospital, but I wouldn't want to go to the ER if my leg was ripped off. He seen doctors and nurses that were too busy hanging out in the back than to help people in the front. Now, I'm talking about our ER not anyone elses, and I'm only talking about what he seen first hand. It was disgusting. As a matter of fact, my cousin is now in the process of being tested for AIDS every 3 months for the next year from an incident last month where he went to the ER with chest pains and they had him sitting on a bed that was covered with shit. They didn't notice it until it started seeping through his jeans.
Sorry, bad expeirences with the ER, lol.

 

[dilloduck]

Boy howdy-----the series ER can't even touch what I saw happen there--some funny as hell--some tragic.

 

[Comrade]

I smell blood in the water for trial lawyers with a seven figure lawsuit in the making.

I don't see any claim of whether he was uninsured or poor, but in this case it would only help the suit and increase the hospitals liability in failing to treat all emergency cases.

Maybe a nationalized health care would have prevented this, given multi-million dollar suits are not motivating hospital workers like a government agency could. Then again, this kind of thing happens all around the world, and in a place like Canada, for example, who are they going to sue?

 

[Annie]

I smell blood in the water for trial lawyers with a seven figure lawsuit in the making.

I don't see any claim of whether he was uninsured or poor, but in this case it would only help the suit and increase the hospitals liability in failing to treat all emergency cases.

Maybe a nationalized health care would have prevented this, given multi-million dollar suits are not motivating hospital workers like a government agency could. Then again, this kind of thing happens all around the world, and in a place like Canada, for example, who are they going to sue?

Interesting you brought up the Canadian system, Comrade. Did you see this:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?p=130830#post130830

 

[UsaPride]

Boy howdy-----the series ER can't even touch what I saw happen there--some funny as hell--some tragic.

Yeah, I finally had to put my foot down and tell him to stop telling me how his day went, LOL!

 

[dilloduck]

I smell blood in the water for trial lawyers with a seven figure lawsuit in the making.

I don't see any claim of whether he was uninsured or poor, but in this case it would only help the suit and increase the hospitals liability in failing to treat all emergency cases.

Maybe a nationalized health care would have prevented this, given multi-million dollar suits are not motivating hospital workers like a government agency could. Then again, this kind of thing happens all around the world, and in a place like Canada, for example, who are they going to sue?

Ya--good news for the John Edwards types huh? Why waste time chasing an ambulance when you can just hang out at the destination. A lot of facts yet to be determined on this one. Some people will sleep anyplace they can find and many homeless die in the streets only to be found later.

 

[Comrade]

Interesting you brought up the Canadian system, Comrade. Did you see this:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?p=130830#post130830

I didn't before but I figured there was a reason why Canadians would pay to be treated in the US while their own care was supposed to be free and responsive. You get what you pay for!

 

[5stringJeff]

I think it depends on the hospital. My wife had a heart attack last year, at the ripe age of 31, and I took her to the ER at our local hospital. She was in such pain that she couldn't stnad, let alone talk to anyone. The nurses dismissed her pains as a "panic attack" and made us wait for about 20-30 minutes before seeing us. Needless to say, that worsened things. The heart attack itself was brought on by a spasm of the heart muscle (my wife is quite thin) but because we had to wait for so long, she ended up having pericarditis (swelling of the membrane surrounding the heart) along with other swelling around the heart. It took her six months to recover from conditions that she should not have had to suffer - but for one nurse's premature on-the-spot diagnosis.
So now we avoid that hospital (Good Samaritan hospital) and go to Tacoma General if we have to.

 

[Annie]

I think it depends on the hospital. My wife had a heart attack last year, at the ripe age of 31, and I took her to the ER at our local hospital. She was in such pain that she couldn't stnad, let alone talk to anyone. The nurses dismissed her pains as a "panic attack" and made us wait for about 20-30 minutes before seeing us. Needless to say, that worsened things. The heart attack itself was brought on by a spasm of the heart muscle (my wife is quite thin) but because we had to wait for so long, she ended up having pericarditis (swelling of the membrane surrounding the heart) along with other swelling around the heart. It took her six months to recover from conditions that she should not have had to suffer - but for one nurse's premature on-the-spot diagnosis.
So now we avoid that hospital (Good Samaritan hospital) and go to Tacoma General if we have to.

Jeff, I'm sorry to hear about your wife. I hope her health has returned.

 

[UsaPride]

I think it depends on the hospital. My wife had a heart attack last year, at the ripe age of 31, and I took her to the ER at our local hospital. She was in such pain that she couldn't stnad, let alone talk to anyone. The nurses dismissed her pains as a "panic attack" and made us wait for about 20-30 minutes before seeing us. Needless to say, that worsened things. The heart attack itself was brought on by a spasm of the heart muscle (my wife is quite thin) but because we had to wait for so long, she ended up having pericarditis (swelling of the membrane surrounding the heart) along with other swelling around the heart. It took her six months to recover from conditions that she should not have had to suffer - but for one nurse's premature on-the-spot diagnosis.
So now we avoid that hospital (Good Samaritan hospital) and go to Tacoma General if we have to.

Goodness Jeff, that's awful! I've heard several complaints from women that their chest pains are automatically passed off as "panic attacks". Scary!

 

[insein]

The level of care is drastically reduced with ever case a trial lawyer brings to court. More doctors get sued. Less people want to be doctors. More idiots that they push through med school to get them in the field.

If people are under the false notion that a universal healthcare system would have prevented these incidents, they are gravely mistaken. If anything, they would become more frequent and increasingly dire.

Two dangerous domestic policies of the Democrats. Universal healthcare and lack of Tort reform to keep the trial lawyers in check.