Redlippie

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/03/Op...outrageo.shtml

Un-bloody-lievable! :curse:

another bloody yank

It is outrageous, but clearly according to the article the hospital broke both state and federal mandates in their actions. This incident seems like kind of a rogue action instead of accepted policy.

Adnams

I dont understand how people can be so in humane. These people are trained to save lives, one would have thought that their instinct to help would take over before their instinct for cold hard cash.

TruBrit

and i hope heads will roll over this outrageous mis-management

another bloody yank

The people that make decisions like these are not the EMT's and doctors and nurses. They are the number crunching, bean counting, policy making bureaucrats to whom everyone is a number, not a person.

TruBrit

exactly and like i said i hope heads roll over this!

Dogbyte

One can only hope that the p.m.b's find themselves in a similar situation soon.Money the root of all evil.

Adnams

Well yes I know that but wouldnt you have thought that their humanity would kick in and they'd help. How could you watch someone die when you know you could have saved them or at least tried to. It beggars belief.

Titchski

I'd like to say that's unbelievable, sadly however, having read previous stories of certain upmarket LA hospitals "dumping" indigent care seekers outside charity urgent care centres, I'm not surprised in the least.

Kaffy Mintcake

Not defending what the hospital did (if you accept the version from the author), but keep in mind this article is in the editorial section, and is someone's opinion. There are usually two sides to every story. We have no idea if the author has an agenda or not, or how factual their account may be.

A lot is missing from this article. For instance: it says that this man was routed to a different hospital 10 minutes away. Did the paramedics say "he needs to come to your hospital or he's not going to make it" or similar? Did the paramedics think this was a life and death situation? The rantings of the author are one thing - but from what I can see - we can't tell that from this article. If they had declared this and were turned away, then that's absolutely a violation of policy ... but we can't say that's what happened.

Maybe it did, maybe it didn't? Wish we had a less biased source.

simongb

I was listening to a speech by a Republican presidential candidate (I forget who it was) and he said, 'we will not have cradle to grave health care' (like it was a terrible thing) or something like that and the audience cheered in approval!!! I just don't get this country sometimes.

Sally

Come on - the idiotic bloke had his heart attack at the wrong hospital. How is that anybody's fault? The main thing is to keep the budget straight and avoid commies or liberals taking over the damn system. And it's probably all lies anyway.

elfman

here's another example of what advocates of universal healthcare are up against:

State Rep. Carl Wimmer of Utah is currently raising money for his brother who has cancer but no health insurance, and Wimmer recently turned down the chance to see Michael Moore's new movie "SiCKO" for free, saying, "Michael Moore's movies are full of lies and half-truths and I don't see how this will be any different. Until we have a firm grasp on the problem, I don't think anyone will be able to solve it."

Instead of working to fix America's broken healthcare system, Wimmer, a powerlifter, is "benching for bucks" to raise money for his brother's cancer treatments. Apparently Wimmer believes that charity will solve the problems of America's 45 million uninsured, and he would be absolutely right - if only they all had a prominent local politician who would go out and "bench for bucks" on their behalf. Which seems to be a bit of a flaw in his plan.

But anyway, DUer ProudDad wrote to Rep. Wimmer last week to let him know that he'd been featured on the list, and here's Wimmer's response:

Dearest Socialists,

While I know your hero Karl Marx would be proud of your attempt to bring communist ideals to the U.S, not to mention your trashy language; I am unimpressed....Please send your drivel to someone who is actually uneducated, so that you might actually convince them that destroying America with communism is good....

As for me, don't email me again or I will block your email address.

Representative Wimmer
House District 52

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/top10/301

Kaffy Mintcake

Dearest Socialists,

While I know your hero Karl Marx would be proud of your attempt to bring communist ideals to the U.S, not to mention your trashy language; I am unimpressed....Please send your drivel to someone who is actually uneducated, so that you might actually convince them that destroying America with communism is good....

As for me, don't email me again or I will block your email address.

Representative Wimmer
House District 52

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/top10/301[/QUOTE][/I]

It seems very unlikely (not impossible, but unlikely) to me that a US Representative would be stupid enough to reply in this manner. A lack of reply or a form letter seems far more possible, even if he felt the sentiments expressed in this e-mail. Also seems unlikely that someone would have access to his personal e-mail?

Not denying that the system needs work ... but again ... question the source of this info. We're supposed to take DUer ProudDad's word for it? Who the heck is that? And how do we know he didn't write this himself?

We don't.

Mallory

These kind of outrageous events happen everywhere though don't they? Whether it be NHS, France, SA or USA. Anyone can sit down and Google for some awful situation, and comment that it's because it's the USA. I sat down and googled for 2 minutes, and found all sorts of horrible situations.

For instance,

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=767572006