Posted on 10/19/2011 6:28:09 PM PDT by Pinkbell
When Doreen Wallace fell and broke her hip in the lobby of a Niagara Falls hospital, she figured at least she’d get help — and fast.
But that’s not what happened.
Instead, the 82-year-old Wallace — who was leaving with her son after visiting her dying husband at Greater Niagara General Hospital on Oct. 8 — was told by staff no one could help her until an ambulance was called.
To a hospital.
“It was horrible. It really was. Everybody who walked through the door stopped and stared at me,” said Wallace, who already had a broken arm from a previous fall. She ended up spending almost 30 minutes on the ground.
“I was inside the hospital. Why did they have to wait for an ambulance to come and pick me up?”
As she lay face down on a metal grate, her right arm slashed, a security guard called for help and two nurses from the emergency room came over. But Wallace’s son said they refused to help until paramedics arrived.
“I was floored,” said Mike Wallace. “We’re probably, maybe, like a 50-yard walk, literally, down to the emergency department.”
In the meantime, Wallace’s head was wrapped in a dirty blanket and the security guard helped wipe away her blood with paper towel.
Eventually, an orthopedic surgeon came across the scene and with the help of an assistant, moved the elderly woman into a wheelchair.
Shortly afterwards, paramedics finally arrived at the main entrance — their ambulance allegedly originating in St. Catharines because no one at the hospital in Niagara Falls was available to help.
The supervisor of the Niagara Health System said the incident stemmed from a communication problem among staff.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
Bureaucrats are bureaucrats no matter where they work.
Thank the injury lawyers.
Communication problem or basic stupidity...OR....so afraid of lawsuits....better that she die than someone twist her the wrong way...
This is Tranta, not a civilized place. There are no malpractice cases ~ remember, all that goes away with SINGLE PAYER!
This is the wonderful Canadian system.
Two Toronto hospital presidents said their facilities provide emergency care anywhere on hospital grounds, although both acknowledged there could be situations where 911 would also be called.
Dr. Tim Rutledge, president of North York General Hospital, said he has come to the rescue himself when people have run into trouble in areas other than the emergency department.
Maybe you didn’t read the story of my old canadian hometown of Vancouver BC when a hospital in the Greater Vancouver area had to do “shove” a post-op patient in an actual donut shop because there were no rooms available.
The usual part is that my canadian GF used to work at that very hospital and it didn’t even surprise her.
We were visiting my Mother in the hospital in Pensacola when our Daughter drew back her head and hit the sharp metal edge of something.
It was bleeding and I looked and she had a small split in her scalp. I could tell it wasn’t serious but it did need stitching up so we went down to the emergency room.
There was no real trouble tho they did take a statement of what happened. I thought to myself that this would be a wonderful opportunity to sue the hospital tho we were no going to do it.
I was a little surprised when our insurance got billed for it tho. Since it paid for it we just let it go.
A broken hip and they put her in a wheelchair??
Values have been thrown out the window, what did we think would happen?
No, you can thank the scumbag lawyers for this type of thing. Them and the scumbag lawyer politicians who enable them.
tort reform and back to basic common sense and this would be solved...
this is what happens when you have a building in Seattle that has more lawyers than the entire country of Japan.....
A decade ago I fell inside a hospital and dislocated my knee...right in front of their Risk Management office.
They got a gurney to wheel me to the ER. Never saw a bill for ANYTHING—including a year of working out with a Personal Trainer.
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiagra falls, slowly she slips ...
Posted on 11/20/2003 3:15:45 AM EST by Lancey Howard
November 19, 2003 -- DAN Aykroyd is no fan of the bureaucratic bungling and cut-rate care of socialized medicine. "One place you don't want to get sick is Quebec," the Canadian actor advised us after a screening of Denys Arcand's 'The Barbarian Invasions.' "It's all socialized. Believe me, you don't want to go to a hospital there."
good sam law should cover them as it would any other passerby. they weren’t treating her as part of their
job assignment.
...step by step, stitch by stitch...
No,Lancy. Step by step, inch by inch. ?
Never mind. Slowly she slips, stitch by stitch. You guys crack me up. Realy.
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