Tragic Catch-911 for dying woman | LAT | 6.13.07
In the 40 minutes before a woman’s death last month at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, two separate callers pleaded with 911 dispatchers to send help because the hospital staff was ignoring her as she writhed on the floor, according to audio recordings of the calls.
The patient, Edith Isabel Rodriguez, was pronounced dead at 2:17 a.m., the victim of “inexcusable” indifference by staff at King-Harbor, county health officials later acknowledged.
First Call
Interpreter: I’m in the emergency room, my wife is dying, and the nurses don’t want to help her out.
Dispatcher: OK, what do you mean she’s dying? What’s wrong with her?
Interpreter: She’s vomiting blood.
Dispatcher: OK, and why aren’t they helping her?
Interpreter: OK, they’re watching her and they’re not doing anything. OK, they’re just watching her.
Dispatcher: OK, he needs to contact a nurse or a doctor and let them know she’s vomiting blood. Paramedics are not going to pick him up or pick his wife up from a hospital because she’s already at one.
Second Call
Dispatcher: What’s your emergency?
Caller: There’s a lady on the ground here in the emergency room at Martin Luther King and they are overlooking her, claiming that she’s been discharged, and she’s definitely sick and there’s a guy that’s ignoring her.
Dispatcher: Well, what do you want me to do for you, ma’am?
Caller: Send an ambulance out here to take her somewhere where she can get medical help.
Dispatcher: OK, you’re at the hospital, ma’am. You have to contact them.
Caller: They have a problem, they won’t help her.
Dispatcher: Well, you know, they’re the medical professionals, OK? You’re already at a hospital.
Caller: But you can still send an ambulance if that’s my request.
Dispatcher: Well, if you’re not pleased with the result you’re getting from them, you know, we can’t….
Caller: It’s another patient. I’m not pleased with the result that I’m getting from ‘em but it’s another patient that’s sicker, and did you know she’s down, all down on the ground….
Dispatcher: If you have a problem with the quality of the hospital, OK, you have to contact the hospital supervisors, OK, and let them know. The police have nothing to do with that, ma’am. This line, 911, is used for emergency purposes only.
Caller: This is an emergency.
Dispatcher: Life-threatening emergencies. It is not! OK? If you want to call us back on our business line, I’ll give you the number.
Inexcusable indifference says it all…
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
We have heard this story many times before. It seems all dispatchers police, fire and emergency medical technicians feel they have heard it all and they are able to make vital decisions over the phone, this is not true and their arrogance and indifference to someones situation (if not textbook related )then they feel their power to disagree, argue, and even deny someone emergency care.
Probably they have heard many stories and have thought they heard it all, but it is obvious this is untrue. May God Bless all that risk their lives everyday for the well being of all of us….but may they not forget, they too are a part of the human race and they are not God and they should not be ego driven to make these decisons because they didn't believe the callers…
God bless the callers of loved ones when they don't get the help they deserve…god bless the dispatchers who made bad decisions and people have died. May this never happen to your family and loved ones!
Come down to earth and be the helper of humanity you wanted to be when you chose your professions.
We have heard this story many times before. It seems all dispatchers police, fire and emergency medical technicians feel they have heard it all and they are able to make vital decisions over the phone, this is not true and their arrogance and indifference to someones situation (if not textbook related )then they feel their power to disagree, argue, and even deny someone emergency care.
Probably they have heard many stories and have thought they heard it all, but it is obvious this is untrue. May God Bless all that risk their lives everyday for the well being of all of us….but may they not forget, they too are a part of the human race and they are not God and they should not be ego driven to make these decisons because they didn’t believe the callers…
God bless the callers of loved ones when they don’t get the help they deserve…god bless the dispatchers who made bad decisions and people have died. May this never happen to your family and loved ones!
Come down to earth and be the helper of humanity you wanted to be when you chose your professions.