Man Dies in ER After Complaining of Rash

Discussion in 'Survival Medicine' started by tulianr, Jan 28, 2014.


  1. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    This story was about a guy dying in an emergency room after an extensive wait, but I'm way more interested in what he died of - a 30 year old man complaining of a rash, drops dead. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
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    Man Dies After 8 Hours in ER Waiting Room
    Posted Jan 27, 2014 11:50 AM CST

    Jon Verrier came into the emergency room at St. Barnabas Hospital complaining of a rash. Eight hours later he was found "stiff, blue, and cold" in a waiting room chair, having died unnoticed several hours earlier, an emergency room worker told ABC 7.

    The 30-year-old arrived at the Bronx hospital at 10pm on Jan. 19, and the hospital says his name was called three times between then and 2am. Security footage shows he was alive as late as 3:45am.

    Finally, at 6:40am, a security guard noticed that Verrier was dead. The hospital has concluded that "all guidelines were met," a spokesperson says. But the employee has a more harsh assessment: "He died because [of] not enough staff," he said.
    .....

    The New York Post adds that Saint Barnabas' emergency room has an average turnaround time of 306 minutes, more than twice the national average.

    Man Dies After 8 Hours in ER Waiting Room - Jon Verrier was only there for a rash
     
  2. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    I suspect we are going to here more stories like this in the coming years..... lack of funding will create cut backs in staff... the end result will be more loss of life that may have been prevented.
     
    tulianr likes this.
  3. Pyrrhus

    Pyrrhus Monkey+++

    I'll through down MRSA. I had it about 8 years ago, and I can tell you that it can manifest itself as a rash, and it can move fast. Really fast. It almost killed me.

    But I kicked it in the throat and bent it over.
     
  4. VHestin

    VHestin Farm Chick

    I wouldn't be surprised if the low staff was due to ObamaCare. I remember him saying one of the ways to fund it was to reduce/cut funding to hospitals. I remember thinking what good is it to have 'medical insurance'(I refuse to call it HEALTH insurance) if there's no one there to treat you?!
     
    Yard Dart likes this.
  5. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    Had union nurses in Spokane go on strike because of short staffing... Hospital brought in agency nurses to cover during the (short) walk out, but that is an expensive solution..
     
  6. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    It's even more fun, trying to get in to see your primary care doc.
    No available appts on Monday, tuesday, nor today.
    their statement, if it's an emergency, go to the hospital.

    Well screw me.
    Nah, It's just the flu. I kicked that part, but now I've got bronchitis. I'll just self diagnose and treat the symptoms myself. thank you.
     
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  7. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    And I have to wonder, if you are in a position that is in a service industry...how does walking out completely when you are short staffed help the people you are there to help. I understand that nurses don't take the Hippocratic oath to do no harm but in a situation like that...I just don't get it.

    Yes, I feel for the people that are put in the position of overwork (and they are union so it's a little different) but my team is understaffed, by both industry standards and no less than three external audits, by at least 500%. If I walked out until they fixed the staffing issue I'd be looking for a job by the time my ass hit the door.
     
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  8. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Union Nurses go on "Strike" to get the attention of Management. It costs the Hospital about 300% more to hire Traveling Nurses to fill those positions, for the two or three Days of the "Attention Getting Strike" There are Travelers that just do Strike Jobs, and they get Paid very well. Some make $75-$95 an hour, if they have a Specialty like ER or OB/Gyn. They get AirFare Round Trip, Food, Lodging in local Hotels, a Car, and usually a Bonus, if they complete the Contract. Hospitals just can NOT sustain a Nurse's Walkout for more than a few days. They would be broke/Bankrupt in a week or two.
     
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  9. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    I definitely have my opinions on that subject and it seems we would not disagree, the union has to provide adequate notice to the hospital prior to any walk out.. If a nurse abandon their assignment they can loose their license to practice.. A nurse can be put in a situation that places the patient at risk for inadequate care and not having adequate staffing for the patient numbers is the primary reason for that.. The simplest solution would be to hire more CNA's to provide ADL type cares and report any issues to the nursing staff.. That frees the nurse to provide the band aids and pills...
     
  10. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    One other thing, that Nurses can do for in-adequate Staffing, is to Report that Hospital to JACHO, which is the Hospital Accreditation Organization. If a Hospital loses it's JACHO Accreditation, they are given either a deadline to fix the issues, or they are Shut down....
    JACHO has standard Staffing for Accreditation, and Hospital are always trying to run on the Raged Edge of that standard.
     
  11. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    Agreed. The ultimate problem is management working for the almighty dollar and not giving a tinker's cuss for the patient/client/customer.

    Same thing at work. Our new CEO has a background in mergers and acquisitions...ie: he sells the companies he works for and gets paid handsomely to do it. Recent emails have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that his priorities are (in order): him, the shareholder aaaaaaand that's it. He doesn't give a rip about the customer or the employee outside of how they affect the bottom line. It's BS and a crappy way to run a company because if you don't care about your employees or customers, eventually you won't have either and that WILL have a negative impact on the shareholder.
     
  12. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    They go by head count not necasarily by acuity. One patient with a complicated dressing change could take up half an hour of two staff members time..
     
  13. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

     
  14. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    Have witnessed the absurd decisions to save money made by corporations .. Interesting that I had this very conversation this morning...
     
  15. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    @DarkLight @kellory Tinker's dam.
    Close, only slightly off. As I learned it from my tinknocker g-pa, it was a clay or other nonflammable ridge surrounding a hole in a tin pot to be repaired by pouring in molten solder, left to cool, the dam cleaned away, then the solder filed down to effect the repair. Once used, the dam became worthless. Somewhat supported by wiki -
    Tinker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    There is also another tinker's damn that serves a different purpose, one of contempt.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2014
  16. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    heh, I seem to have this conversation every morning. Apparently even when I'm working from home. ;)
     
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  17. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    We are going through some corp.. mandated scheduling changes, again!! Last time we had a large number of the staff leave...
     
  18. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    @ghrit , my sources were all pre-wiki, but it ain't worth arguing about.;)
     
  19. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    ;)@kellory G-pa was also pre-wiki ---

    Rooting thru other definitions, it looks like a tinker isn't necessarily a tin knocker. Ah, well --
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2014
    kellory likes this.
  20. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    @Dont - we JUST went through that 2 weeks ago. My manager was let go and now I report directly to the Director of our department. That's all going to shake up again in the next 3-4 weeks as the new VP finalizes his org chart. I hate this crap!
     
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