AP: Hospital turns away woman in labor, baby dies after home delivery

[ljs]

I'm sure more details are to come, but the inital report doesn't look good for the hospital. Read the entire article, at the end it mentions a woman at the hosptial with heart problems waited 9 hours to be seen.

The Nevada State Board of Nursing has opened a probe into the treatment of a pregnant Las Vegas woman who said she was ignored as she moaned and pleaded for help while waiting for six hours in University Medical Center's emergency room.

Meanwhile, two other people in the waiting room on the night 25-year-old Roshunda Abney sought help backed up what she and her fiancé told the Review-Journal: When others in the waiting room asked a nursing assistant to aid Abney, they were told to mind their own business or they wouldn't get a chance to see a physician.

He made people afraid they'd get kicked out," said 45-year-old Darlla Wall, whose 21-year-old son, Jayson, accompanied her to the hospital when she complained of chest pains.

"My son tried to get her (Abney) help, and he was told to sit down or else."

Abney and her fiancé, Raffinee Dewberry, said they also unsuccessfully sought treatment for her abdominal pain on Nov. 30 at Valley Hospital Medical Center before giving up and going home.

Valley officials deny the couple's allegations.

Twenty minutes after she arrived home, Abney began to give birth to a baby girl. Paramedics were called, and they performed a breech delivery. Abney and the baby were taken to the hospital in separate ambulances.

Results of a coroner's examination on the 1-pound, 6-ounce girl, named Angel by Abney, have not been released. Abney said she was told it appeared she was in her sixth month of pregnancy.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/scrutiny-of-hospital-increases-78949342.html

click link for entire article

[Toe Jam]

Hmm. I don't know how mad I'd be at the hospital for this one.

Too many unknowns to make an accurate judgment.

[Hunter44]

Hmm. I don't know how mad I'd be at the hospital for this one.

Too many unknowns to make an accurate judgment.

What kinda excuse do you think the hospital could possibly have for this one??

[Toe Jam]

What kinda excuse do you think the hospital could possibly have for this one??

I'll admit that it seems a bit weird.

I've heard of cases where women didn't know they were pregnant until they ended up having the kid.

But I would think simple tests, even in an ER, would tip someone off that she might be prego.

I know people miss things in an ER all the time but if a woman is six months pregnant, that would be hard to miss.

EDIT: Read it again and it looks like they never even bothered to check this woman out. WTF.

[skinsfan07]

Yeesh that's awful.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

Hospitals and doctors can never make mistakes. We need tort reform now, otherwise these professionals would have ordered all types of unnecessary tests that would have found the source of her problem and potentially saved her child's life.

If we don't act quickly and pass tort reform, the hospital and nurses will be forced to account for their actions and health care quality will go up.

[Toe Jam]

Does the article say if they had insurance or not? I didn't see it anywhere.

That would explain a lot, maybe.

[No_Pressure]

Emergency rooms are terrible places. They are more congested than our legal system.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

Does the article say if they had insurance or not? I didn't see it anywhere.

That would explain a lot, maybe.

No it wouldn't explain anything. If the defense is that they turned them away for failure to have insurance, then the hospital administrator should just go out and buy a tube of KY for the anal raping he's going to get in prison, under EMTALA.

So, I guess it would explain something... whether this is civil only or both civil and criminal.

[aREDSKIN]

They must not have been illegals.

[Toe Jam]

So, I guess it would explain something... whether this is civil only or both civil and criminal.

That's what I meant.

[Bostic Hog]

buy a tube of KY for the anal raping he's going to get in prison, under EMTALA.

EMTALA doesn't cover "abdominal pain" which is what they claim her symptoms were.

[Special K]

Whoa, my uncle's the Chief of Neuro at this hospital. I'm going to have to see what he has to say about this story.

I will say, this story is VERY short on facts. I guarantee there is a lot more to this story than what is reported here.

And TSF - please give up the medical malpractice schtick . There's a lot more people in the health profession want to see in health reform besides simple tort reform. I do find it interesting that you're already trying to determine if this is criminal and/or civil based on this article...Give me a break.

EMTALA doesn't cover "abdominal pain" which is what they claim her symptoms were.

EMTALA covers EVERYTHING. You cannot be turned away from an emergency room on the basis of insurance. Period. The patient must be stabilized....different ER's have different amounts of time that it takes to se patients and "stabilize" them.

[Special K]

By the way, I guess I should add how sad this story is. I feel terrible parents lost their baby. It will be interesting to see what happens when the entire story unfolds.

[Bostic Hog]

Whoa, my uncle's the Chief of Neuro at this hospital. I'm going to have to see what he has to say about this story.

I will say, this story is VERY short on facts. I guarantee there is a lot more to this story than what is reported here.

And TSF - please give up the medical malpractice schtick . There's a lot more people in the health profession want to see in health reform besides simple tort reform. I do find it interesting that you're already trying to determine if this is criminal and/or civil based on this article...Give me a break.

EMTALA covers EVERYTHING. You cannot be turned away from an emergency room on the basis of insurance. Period. The patient must be stabilized....different ER's have different amounts of time that it takes to se patients and "stabilize" them.

Nowhere in the article does it say anything about insurance. They weren't turned away for lack of insurance - at least from what I read. And abdominal pain doesn't mean the patient isn't stable. EMTALA requires the patient be stable. If she didn't know she was preggers -- shame on the little slut. (JUST KIDDING ABOUT THAT).

[Enter Apotheosis]

If she didn't know she was preggers -- shame on the little slut. (JUST KIDDING ABOUT THAT).

Even with the disclaimer, that's just harsh.

[cjcdaman]

Disgusting comment

Damn, dude. Probably best just to delete that altogether.

[Jumbo]

Damn, dude. Probably best just to delete that altogether.

I agree. When a mod gets a report of a troll post (there have been two for this thread already), they sometimes might pull the trigger on a comment like that in a thread like this, fwiw (and no, I didn't).

[Bostic Hog]

I agree. When a mod gets a report of a troll post (there have been two for this thread already), they sometimes might pull the trigger on a comment like that in a thread like this, fwiw (and no, I didn't).

Fortunately, my post wasn't a troll post. I brought valuable, valid, legitimate, knowledgeable and productive discussion to the thread -- something a troll wouldn't do

[Jumbo]

Fortunately, my post wasn't a troll post. I brought valuable, valid, legitimate, knowledgeable and productive discussion to the thread -- something a troll wouldn't do

First, obviously, as I stated, I didn't do anything because I didn't feel it qualified by my own judgment, and I was just trying to offer some friendy info. However, since you responded as such and I also see no edit, I am going to direct you to the following (and this will end our thread derailing on this matter):

I know what else these rules say in them, but board-management wise (mod turf) this is the key phrase from Rule #12--

Trolls will be identified and censured, at the discretion of the ES Staff

This refers to both posters and posts.

And this is a key phrase from Rule #18:

We're experiencing a recent surge in people who do not understand the meaning of the rules who continue to challenge whether the mods do. Any suggestion the people who wrote the rules and are asked to enforce them know them less than you will lead to an immediate temporary ban.

So off with your bad self (and by that I don't mean he was banned for Pete's sake), BH, have fun, and we're back to the topic.

[Bostic Hog]

On topic is the best. EMTALA requires stabilizing treatment without consideration of insurance. I saw nowhere in the article that states this person was denied coverage because of lack of insurance.

Sucky ER is one thing, but this doesn't appear to me to be EMTALA related.

[Special K]

Nowhere in the article does it say anything about insurance. They weren't turned away for lack of insurance - at least from what I read. And abdominal pain doesn't mean the patient isn't stable. EMTALA requires the patient be stable.

Correct, abdominal pain be caused by a multitude of issues. That's why medical staff evaluate them, determine the cause, and ensure they are stabilized. You can'T just LEGALLY not see a patient (unless you are totally unethical and prepared to have your butt sued off and likely a censure and possible license revocation by the medical review board) because they "only" have "abdominal" pain. You don't know the history, you don't know if it's internal bleeding, ruptured appendix, PREGNANCY, etc., etc., etc.

Like I said, there's a lot to this situation and I'm interested in seeing more facts come out about this story.

I would agree with your last post that this does not appear directly related to EMTALA (although who knows).

[Bostic Hog]

Correct, abdominal pain can be caused by a multitude of issues. That's why medical staff evaluate them, determine the cause, and ensure they are stabilized. You can just LEGALLY not see a patient (unless you are totally unethical and prepared to have your butt sued off and likely a censure and possible license revocation by the medical review board) because they "only" have "abdominal" pain. You don't know the history, you don't know if it's internal bleeding, ruptured appendix, PREGNANCY, etc., etc., etc.

Like I said, there's a lot to this situation and I'm interested in seeing more facts come out about this story.

And you don't know the history, either. I've only said that I've not seen anywhere that they were denied treatment for lack of insurance. Abdominal pain doesn't necessitate a medical emergency. They had to wait longer than they wanted.

[10fttall]

It's all very sad. But if the woman didn't know she was pregnant, even when labor started, I don't know how the hospital could be faulted for not figuring it out. That witness statement was such a blatant case of 20/20 hindsight too. She could tell the woman was in labor? Ok, so why didn't she tell people? Leaving the hospital doesn't sound like a very wise move either.

So it's a bad situation. But if an entire 6 month pregnancy is overlooked...God bless em, but sometimes that's not going to work out for you. Sometimes it does.

[Special K]

And you don't know the history, either. I've only said that I've not seen anywhere that they were denied treatment for lack of insurance. Abdominal pain doesn't necessitate a medical emergency. They had to wait longer than they wanted.

I know I don't know the patient's history. The "you" I put in my post wasn't referring to you OR me, it was a generalized statement.

Furthermore, I'm not saying its a medical emergency. I'm saying that the severity of the condition cannot be determined without proper evaluation.

You're saying abdominal pain doesn't necessitate a medical emergency therefore EMTALA is not applicable. I am saying you are completely wrong about your interpretation of the proper application of EMTALA. A patient HAS TO BE EVALUATED and determined to be stable OR stabilized by medical intervention.

Regardless, this is all besides the point. No one knows what happened here in this case.