Hospital Refuses To Assist Man Having Heart Attack In Their Parking Lot

Tells Wife To Call Ambulance For 30-Foot Ride To Front Door.

Quote :

An 83-year-old woman with a cane and a heart condition was told to bring her husband into a Nova Scotia hospital on her own while he had a heart attack in the parking lot of the building, the couple's son said Friday.

Patrick Smale said his 81-year-old father, Herbert Smale, began having chest pains last Saturday and drove to the patient drop-off zone at Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton.

Smale said his mother was with his father and went into the hospital to get help because her husband was in too much pain to walk on his own. Inside the building, a hospital staff member told the elderly woman to bring her husband in on her own, said Patrick Smale.

I know there are rules and liability issues, but couldn't they have sent someone to at least make a judgment call?

Quote :

Tim Guest, vice-president of acute care for Annapolis Valley Health, said officials were investigating the incident and reminding their staff members of the hospital's procedures.

"If someone drives up to the facility needing emergent care and isn't able to enter the building on their own, our process is for a nurse to go out and assess them and if their condition is life-threatening, it's to do whatever they can to help them to get into the building for care," he said.

Ah, so the rules allow it and the chuckleheads on duty just didn't follow them. Stay classy...

Spotts1701 wrote:

Tells Wife To Call Ambulance For 30-Foot Ride To Front Door.

Quote :

An 83-year-old woman with a cane and a heart condition was told to bring her husband into a Nova Scotia hospital on her own while he had a heart attack in the parking lot of the building, the couple's son said Friday.

How many comments about the evils of socialized health care do you think this spawned?

Laereom wrote:

Spotts1701 wrote:

Tells Wife To Call Ambulance For 30-Foot Ride To Front Door.

Quote :

An 83-year-old woman with a cane and a heart condition was told to bring her husband into a Nova Scotia hospital on her own while he had a heart attack in the parking lot of the building, the couple's son said Friday.

How many comments about the evils of socialized health care do you think this spawned?

Over 9000!

and they wouldn't be at least slightly appropriate?

unskilled78 wrote:

Laereom wrote:

Spotts1701 wrote:

Tells Wife To Call Ambulance For 30-Foot Ride To Front Door.

Quote :

An 83-year-old woman with a cane and a heart condition was told to bring her husband into a Nova Scotia hospital on her own while he had a heart attack in the parking lot of the building, the couple's son said Friday.

How many comments about the evils of socialized health care do you think this spawned?

Over 9000!

and they wouldn't be at least slightly appropriate?

No, because this was apparently a case of the hospital staff failing to follow their own policies and procedures.

Human error, not systemic error.

I remember a similar case in the U.S. some years back, where a teenage boy was left to bleed to death just outside the emergency room door because he couldn't get in by himself and hospital procedures forbade the staff to help him in (but they were allowed to go out there and smoke beside his bleeding body).

Spotts1701 wrote:

Spoiler:

No, because this was apparently a case of the hospital staff failing to follow their own policies and procedures.

Human error, not systemic error.

OIC.

Lady Anne wrote:

I remember a similar case in the U.S. some years back, where a teenage boy was left to bleed to death just outside the emergency room door because he couldn't get in by himself and hospital procedures forbade the staff to help him in (but they were allowed to go out there and smoke beside his bleeding body).

W. T. F. I hope the parent(s) of that boy sued those assholes for all they were worth...

Lady Anne wrote:

I remember a similar case in the U.S. some years back, where a teenage boy was left to bleed to death just outside the emergency room door because he couldn't get in by himself and hospital procedures forbade the staff to help him in (but they were allowed to go out there and smoke beside his bleeding body).

Uh, if one could simply walk into Mordor the emergency room, one probably doesn't need to be in the emergency room yet. Let the people who aren't in good enough condition to stand in first, plox.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

I remember a similar case in the U.S. some years back, where a teenage boy was left to bleed to death just outside the emergency room door because he couldn't get in by himself and hospital procedures forbade the staff to help him in (but they were allowed to go out there and smoke beside his bleeding body).

Uh, if one could simply walk into Mordor the emergency room, one probably doesn't need to be in the emergency room yet. Let the people who aren't in good enough condition to stand in first, plox.

... Because it's not like one could have accidentally cut ones own arm open to the point where you're almost bleeding to death and needs some stoppage on that blood flow, stat. Or, you know, injured oneself in such a way that it is life-threatening, but walking is still possible.

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In regards to the news - damnit, that's just stupid. It's not like they didn't know he was out there, and I seriously doubt an 83-year-old looks sturdy enough to carry someone indoors.

Uhh... WTF?

I worked at a hospital. Somebody pulled up in a car with a person in the back seat having a horrible seizure, and the hospital had him carried in. I know because I was one of the ones carrying him. Similarly, a couple people found a girl lying passed out on the corner and just dropped her off - we took her, too. What kind of hospital was this, exactly?

I don't suppose they considered maybe even if they couldn't help as nurses they could give a hand as concerned citizens?

I had a seizure in the street the other day and some nice people called a paramedic who took me home. Admittedly I was in no condition to be aware that it was a paramedic - hell I might have been getting into a car with a kidnapper for all I was aware.

Hey bro lemme tell you about the time I could've been almost almost almost raped.

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

I don't suppose they considered maybe even if they couldn't help as nurses they could give a hand as concerned citizens?

I had a seizure in the street the other day and some nice people called a paramedic who took me home. Admittedly I was in no condition to be aware that it was a paramedic - hell I might have been getting into a car with a kidnapper for all I was aware.

Nope, we don't get that lucky.

unskilled78 wrote:

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

I don't suppose they considered maybe even if they couldn't help as nurses they could give a hand as concerned citizens?

I had a seizure in the street the other day and some nice people called a paramedic who took me home. Admittedly I was in no condition to be aware that it was a paramedic - hell I might have been getting into a car with a kidnapper for all I was aware.

Nope, we don't get that lucky.

Unskilled, don't be a dick.

Harley, glad to know you made it home okay.

Sloth wrote:

What kind of hospital was this, exactly?

One with criminally incompetent personnel.

That's the thing, up here liability rules are a tiny fraction of what they are in the US. You have to pay up-front to sue someone (they can't take a fraction of your winnings), so most people don't have the money or the time to do it. This is just a hospital staffed by ducks.