This makes me hate people.
Anna Brown had visited several hospitals complaining of pain in her legs. When she was ignored at St. Mary’s Hospital, she refused to leaved, screaming and yelling that she was in pain. The hospital had her arrested. The police dragged her out of the hospital and into a squad car. At the Richmond Heights Police Department, she cried that she couldn’t stand up or get out of the car, so the officers dragged her out of the car, into a jail cell, and left her there.
Fifteen minutes later she was dead from a pulmonary embolism:
RICHMOND HEIGHTS • Anna Brown wasn’t leaving the emergency room quietly.
She yelled from a wheelchair at St. Mary’s Health Center security personnel and Richmond Heights police officers that her legs hurt so badly she couldn’t stand.
She had already been to two other hospitals that week in September, complaining of leg pain after spraining her ankle.
This time, she refused to leave.
A police officer arrested Brown for trespassing. He wheeled her out in handcuffs after a doctor said she was healthy enough to be locked up.
Brown was 29. A mother who had lost custody of two children. Homeless. On Medicaid. And, an autopsy later revealed, dying from blood clots that started in her legs, then lodged in her lungs.
She told officers she couldn’t get out of the police car, so they dragged her by her arms into the station. They left her lying on the concrete floor of a jail cell, moaning and struggling to breathe. Just 15 minutes later, a jail worker found her cold to the touch.
Officers suspected Brown was using drugs. Autopsy results showed she had no drugs in her system.Six months later, family members still wonder how Brown’s sprained ankle led to her death in police custody, and whether anyone — including themselves — is to blame.
There seems to be no simple answer.
St. Mary’s officials say they did all they were supposed to do for Brown. Richmond Heights police said they trusted a doctor who said she was fit for jail.
Brown’s mother, Dorothy Davis, isn’t sure what to think.
“If the police killed my daughter, I want to know,” she said. “If the hospital is at fault, I want to know. I want to be able to tell her children why their mother isn’t here.”
Davis also faults the St. Louis County Family Court, which she said forced her into a heartbreaking dilemma after the state took away Brown’s children on a claim of neglect. Davis could take in her grandchildren or her daughter, a judge said, but not both.
“I’m mad at myself because if I hadn’t listened to the courts, she would still be here,” Davis said. “If she had been here at this house, she would be here today.”
They did all they were “supposed” to do for her. Not all they could do for her. Horrific.
Just in case the past three weeks of the Trayvon Martin affair hasn’t demonstrated exactly how invaluable black lives are to some people, Anna Brown should cement the notion. She was profiled, deemed to be a drug seeker, and cast aside as if she were irrelevant; dragged away from life-saving care to her death on a cold floor in jail, in the same way that the Sanford Police Department left Trayvon Martin face down in the grass while they tried to figure out how to absolve George Zimmerman of blame.
Somebody should make Scalia watch this video. Anna Browns will be de rigueur should the ACA be repealed. It’s unfathomable.
*** See Youth Revolutionary Council for action items.
[via SandraRose]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
But Veritas told me that access to medical care wasn’t a problem in this country, that if you went to the emergency room they had to treat you.
Huh, a Republican lied to me.
Steve in DC
http://gawker.com/5825010/police-beat-gentle-homeless-mentally-ill-man-to-death
Remember this one from last year, that was crazy.
fuzed
Wow, what a brew of evil: racism, health care, injustice, police brutality. This is the future the (many, not all to be fair) 1% want.
FEAR the FUTURE
Howlin Wolfe
Fuck.
eric
@fuzed: think of the money saved!
Steve in DC
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/no_ny_officers_charged_in_killing_of_unarmed_black_veteran_20120329/
that one as well. The police really are a fail train when it comes to this sort of stuff.
S. cerevisiae
America! Fuck Yeah!
I wonder what the civilized world thinks when they see stories like this?
beltane
Look at it this way: a Catholic hospital just aborted a 29 year old woman. See how pro-life they are.
greennotGreen
She really wasn’t “dragged away from life-saving care” because the hospital wasn’t caring for her.
David Koch
This is Obama’s fault.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
Pulmonary embolism from DVT is a shitty, shitty way to die. Strangling and suffocating, basically.
Her leg pain was a definitive diagnostic indicator. The hospital’s probably going to get the lion’s share of blame for this, as they should.
The Other Chuck
Unless you’re aiming for the sarcasm, “invaluable” means the same as “valuable”. I think you’re looking for “valueless” or just “worthless”.
dr. bloor
@Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity:
The chart’s going to get better treatment than she did. Every fucking page is essentially going to read as “We met the standard of care!”
beltane
@Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity: I agree. The hospital directly caused Anna Brown’s death by refusing to treat her. One wonders how many other people have died because of negligent/incompetent ER staff.
Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs!
Too bad she didn’t Stand Her Ground.
Oh. I forgot.
Only white people can Stand Their Ground.
Allan
I won’t know what to think about this until someone hacks her email.
Scott
Somebody should make Scalia watch this video.
Like it’d do any good. It’d give him a stiffy, and he’d demand more of it.
Silver
You want Scalia to watch the video? Why? You really need to see an old wrinkled fuck jerk off?
This kind of inhuman shit isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. It’s the intended result.
Full of Woe
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” is my guess.
dr. bloor
Scalia? You’re familiar with the phrase “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature,” right?
beltane
The doctor who said she was healthy enough to be locked up really has no business practicing medicine. I have zero medical training but I know that limb pain is a symptom of a blood clot.
Legalize
Mrs. Legalize and I have been going through some minor health issues that our insurance so far, has been fine about taking care of. Still, we worry because there’s always a little dicking around with these people. Fortunately, dealing with people who dick around with other people’s well-being is kind of what I do every day anyway. I’m pretty sure that as long as I have my employer-provided health insurance, things will be ok for us.
I can’t imagine what it’s like for people who have serious health issues, and who cannot even get the CARE they need, let alone coverage for the care. This woman was given a death sentence because she was poor, scared, and in pain. But I’m sure the reich wingers will be along to tell us that she posted something on Facebook that hurt their feelings, and/or she smoked a bowl recently – therefore the bitch deserved it.
dr. bloor
@beltane:
They’re going to hide behind the sprain. Book it.
Interrobang
The existence of the “drug-seeking” profile by medical staff is a shitty, shitty thing, too. It reeks of the sort of bullshit Puritanism that infects North America like political sinusitis. If you’ve never seen the patient before, you have no legitimate way of determining that they’re a “drug-seeker,” first of all, and secondly, even if the person is seeking drugs, medical staff should treat them (give them the damn drugs!), just out of palliation.
I used to be involved with a guy who developed heavy, heavy addictions to prescription opioid painkillers, thanks to the misattention of a group of buck-passing American doctors whose main philosophy seemed to be “prescribe some pill, and he’ll go away,” and I learnt from watching that withdrawl is a terrible thing. If there weren’t such a bloody stupid moral panic about ZOMG DRUG ADDIKSHUN!!, it’d be a lot easier to deal with withdrawing users, getting them stabilised, and maybe into treatment and off the damn drugs. Fuck.
This case seems to be medically unethical, on top of everything else.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Full of Woe:
That is EXACTLY what my family in England thinks. It is usually followed with “Why the fuck would you want to live there?”
Lord Jesus Perm
Reading things like this just makes me shake in anger.
Full of Woe
@Litlebritdifrnt: Because I can’t find anyone to give me political asylum somewhere saner?
Mutt
Just because she didn’t have drugs in her system dosnt mean she didn’t use drugs! Somebody has to be fair and balanced around here….
dr. bloor
@Interrobang:
You realize these two statements don’t really go together, right?
manual
Im not sure what race has to do with this. From my experience, this is pretty standard operating procedure for how we treat poor people in America. Homeless, whether they be black or white, are non-persons whose ills and problems are ignored by all.
deep
Having lived in that part of Missourah for a time, I can state with certainty that 90% of the white people who live there are racist as FUCK.
Mnemosyne
It sounds very similar to what happened to Edith Rodriguez here in Los Angeles — the hospital staff decided she was disruptive and tried to have her arrested and removed from the ER. She died while the cops were taking her to the patrol car because the hospital couldn’t be bothered to check and see if the woman who was spitting up blood was, like, actually sick.
RosiesDad
This blog’s comment section needs “Like” buttons like Facebook. Or “Recommend” like the NY Times comments sections. Plus a “You’re a complete fucktard” button for balance.
Yes, pain is a great indicator of a problem. It appears that the doctor fucked up majorly. And the police were inhumane and unwitting accomplices to medical malpractice.
But the primary culprit is our health care delivery system and yes, by the time this case gets before a medical review board or a jury, the chart will have received better care than Anna Brown did.
Mnemosyne
@dr. bloor:
No, I think I get what she’s saying — she’s saying that patients who are suspected of “drug seeking” should be given palliative care and admitted to a rehab program rather than being turned away.
I know it varies by state, but could hospitals put someone they suspect of drug seeking on a psychiatric hold or something? Here in California, we have the infamous “72 hour hold” when they suspect a psychiatric patient is a danger to themselves or others, and I don’t know if doctors would consider it unethical to do that with an addict.
NCSteve
I believe everyone should remain calm and reserve judgment. There is still much we don’t know about this case. No one has had time to put her mother’s address on the Internet so that the countertops in the house she wasn’t allowed to live in yet can be inspected, scour every possible database for reasons she had it comin’, or photoshop her head onto a picture of someone dressed like a prostitute.
beltane
@Legalize: A friend of mine from high school has a brain tumor and no health insurance. While he will eventually be approved for disability and Medicare, there is a good possibility he will die before this happens. He is, shall I say, just a tad bitter about the American health care system.
Cargo
To the Republican Party, this is a good start, exactly the results they want from a healthcare system, and they are praying for millions more just like it.
jl
@manual:
I will take the word of commenter deep that, given the location, racism was involved.
However, I also know a doc who left emergency medicine because he could not deal with the ethical issues of releasing patients that were not properly treated for all the serious and emergent conditions that were apparent on routine examination. With patients who had insurance, it was a less serious issue, since they were admitted to the hospital, and there was, maybe, good reason to believe the problem would be detected in the hospital. But for uninsured, particularly obviously lower class ‘less desirable’ people, they were out into the street, or to family that did not have means to get proper medical care.
So, I think if you don’t have your insurance papers, or are not recognized as a worthy middle class or better type, or a racial or other type of ‘undesirable’, it could happen to you. The probability just increases as you go further down the list.
Edit: and by ‘serious’, I mean the emergency room definition of ‘serious’: conditions that unless treated promptly could result in death or irreversible impairment or worsening of condition.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@beltane: Here’s the deal – the pain is one thing, but it’s a simple enough test – all you have to do is touch the icky person’s leg.
They can try all they want, but this is a multi-million dollar award, guaranteed.
Joel
Do no harm, right?
piratedan
@Interrobang: its that same mindset when it comes to just about everything in this country. Charge three grand for a hammer associated with a new aircraft model? that’s perfectly okay… but if someone gets an extra benefit to the tune of 25.00 while on welfare… damn welfare queens are gaming the system!!!!!!
the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)
As she was dragged away, she was screaming FREEDOM! you stupid libtards.
/wingnut
jl
@the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady): Clearly, and example of a Nobama care federal bureaucrat death panel denying care, I am sure.
/snark
dr. bloor
@Mnemosyne: You can’t put someone on a seventy-two hour hold in any state I know of unless they present as an imminent danger to themselves or others. Substance abuse doesn’t even approach the standard–as if our magnificent healthcare system has enough beds and $ to address the issue, anyways.
PurpleGirl
@beltane: Further to the point: he may get disability but he will then have to wait TWO YEARS before Medicare kicks in. And in all probability his disability will put him over the eligibility limits for Medicaid.
Just saying how truly fucked up our systems are.
Linda Featheringill
@Interrobang:
Drug-seeking profile:
Agreed. Also, you don’t have to be dark-skinned to be refused treatment. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence. But in this case, it may have been a component.
the fugitive uterus
how can a doctor not recognize a pulmonary embolism? i assume he did not run any other tests besides an EKG?
the fugitive uterus
as Rush said the other day, everybody has health care in America because they can always go to the ER
aimai
Its never either/or with racism and the drug wars, it is always both. My husband wound up in the emergency room of our own hospital (where our doctor works) twice, by ambulance, for crippling and unexpected back pain. He got treated and I wouldn’t say we were treated badly (in the end) but there were literally hours of unnecessary tests and suspicious questions because the only treatment he needed were muscle relaxants and heavy pain meds and they were panicked that they’d be caught giving them to the wrong guy. There’s tons of suspicion about middle aged white guys being drug seeking, too. Its just that when their middle aged white wives are standing next to them breathing fire and their doctor is on the line demanding that they get seen eventually they are actually treated. But the entire process of ER treatment would work about a bajillion times better if instead of forcing ER doctors and nurses to try to “qualify” patients into drug seeking and not drug seeking they had a separate enterance for people who are drug seeking and they’d give them the fucking drugs. If they’d offered the murdered woman in this story mere pain killers she wouldn’t have taken them because she wasn’t there for pain meds.
aimai
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
But, but, but, ACORN, death panels, Chicago-style thuggery, Bill Ayres, Muslim-atheist, Black Panthers, communist-nazi, Bill-Maher-said-mean-things-about-Sarah-Palin, voter fraud, poverty pimps, where’s-the-birth-cerificate, I want my country back!!!!!
Too many of what I’m sorry to call my fellow Americans won’t give three shits about this. I hope it gets the play it should, and I hope a bunch of soulless assholes get fired, and I hope the hospital and the county get their asses sued off. That would make me happy. What won’t is the inevitable discoveries! that Ms. Brown was somehow “unworthy” of being treated like a person, that she somehow got what she “deserved”. These last two years have made me truly wonder whether there’s anything left of this country worth trying to save, Then I think of the people who do care about outrages like this, and are trying to make it better. It still feels hard to keep hoping at times, though.
Fanshawe
It may not have been an approrpriate diagnosis in this case, but a drug seeking profile is a real thing and is worth considering for things other than puritanism.
Prolonged drug use can, depending on the particular drug, have various deleterious general health effects, can make undergoing anaesthesia far more dangerous, and can limit the actual effectiveness of the drug. It’s no fun recovering from surgical wounds using only ibuprofin because near-lethal dose of morphine provides you with almost no pain relief.
Mnemosyne
@dr. bloor:
I guess that’s what I’m asking — a person who is faking illness or injury in order to secure drugs from an ER would seem to be harming themselves by definition, but I’m guessing that “harming yourself” is med-speak for “immediate suicide risk” and doesn’t actually mean harming yourself.
Even with the lack of beds, it would seem to be more rational to try and treat the suspected drug addiction of the person who you think is seeking drugs than it is to turn away unruly patients with fatal medical problems because the nurses have written them off as just another drug seeker.
Steve
What is wrong with that hospital? Good God. The assumption that she’s a druggie, well I’m sure race didn’t enter into that at all…
Now that she’s gone, I sure hope someone will delve into her social media accounts to see whether there are any pictures of her sorta looking druggie-like. It’s the least we can do, although you could argue we’ve already done the least we can do. What a sad story.
David Koch
*
*
B R E A K I N G – – – N E W S
Olberman fired by Al Gore
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/03/30/456104/current-tv-fires-keith-olbermann/?mobile=nc
I told ya he was nuts.
the fugitive uterus
@beltane: i don’t know if this will help, but here is the pcip (Pre-exsisting Condition Plan) website showing premiums for state plans for coverage if you have not had insurance for 6 months. in my state, the premiums range from $144 to $443 a month, depending on your age. there is a $2500 deductible which i think includes meds. i was going to get on this plan had i not found a job with health insurance.
click on “Find Your State”
Tone In DC
@Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs!:
This.
different-church-lady
@David Koch:
Which one, Gore or Olberman?
SpotWeld
This is what happens when the ER becomes the health care safet net.
The ER is not set up to be totally systematic, whole patient care. It’s fast responce, get the most likely cause and stabilize -type care.
ERs do the best they can, but they aren’t long term or general care. And it’s a rough fit when they have to fill that role. Mistakes get made, and this was a huge one.
If this woman had insurance, was able to get to a doctor when the pain was intially noted she could have gotten an appointment for a specialist, for a ultrsound or MRI, a few days ned rest for observation, a blood thinner, and follow up care.
dr. bloor
@Mnemosyne:
Right now, in most places the dangerousness standard is along the lines of “are you going to use the gun you’re holding on you or me?” Stuff that’s bad for you, however bad it might be, doesn’t cut it.
You’re right about trying to get them into treatment, of course, but the ER is a pretty ineffective place to do it. In the vast majority of cases, the patients sign themselves out between getting meds and talking to the social worker; they’re often not in an introspective state of mind.
different-church-lady
@Steve:
I’m sure Lady Twitchy is already on the case.
arguingwithsignposts
Sometimes, there are no words.
jl
Unfortunately, from doctors with emergency room experience, I was thinking ‘drug seeking profile’ and ‘get ’em out the door asap so not my ER’s problem’ thinking was involved more than medical negligence or direct effect of racism.
But, racism, or at least racial stereotypes, and deciding someone is a ‘drug seeking profile’ person faking symptoms are not related.
Only problem for me is that, not sure the symptoms, which indicated an embolism, would result in an Rx for some nice drugs and and short ER stay. But I don’t know enough to say much about that.
But then, from what ER docs tell me there are also ‘needs food’ and ‘needs place to stay’ and ‘crazy or drugged out’ profiles that show up in ERs. But deciding which patients are really those profiles versus real emergencies is not unrelated to racism and stereotypes either.
DFH no.6
Scalia and almost all of the scores of millions of his fellow fascists wouldn’t give a shit, and would, if pressed, instead blame the victim.
The fascists (including our own little fucked-up troll, Veritas) are the enemy of humanity, as they’ve always been.
Fuck you, I’ve got mine. Devil take the hindmost. Bedrock, foundational principles of conservatism.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I’ll tell you something else, too: Shit like this is why I believe in God. I want there to be a better place; I need there to be a better place.
All I can think of is what this poor woman was going through in the last few hours of her life: the pain, the loneliness, the helplessness, the humiliation. And I don’t want that to be it for her; I don’t want that to be all there is for her; I don’t want that to be how it all ends for her. I want something better for her.
I’m a practicing Christian*, but the scary thing is that I don’t know anything. I can only believe, I can only hope, I can only pray that somebody greater, kinder, wiser and more forgiving than we are is out there smewhere–wherever “somewhere” is. The scariest times for me are those times when I fear that there is nothing else, that there’s no greater consciousness or will or being or whatever you want to call it, and that our lives are all that we have, all that there is, and that our last moments, if they happen to be awful ones, are all that some of us get. Religion to me has nothing to do punishment, but everything to do with justice for the downtrodden. I just want Anna Brown to be somewhere better, somewhere worthy of her, somewhere where she won’t ever have to worry about this kind of shit again.
*Not for nothing, but I don’t believe that Cristianity is The Answer, only that it’s what works for me. I think all people are, in the end, reaching for the Truth, and whatever way we have of trying to understand it can only be a hazy approximation. This goes for agnostics and atheists as well; I don’t believe religious people have any monopoly on trying to be decent people; as is easy to see, often religion is nothing more than an excuse creeps and turds use to justify their viciousness.
MacKenna
Yeah, because if a black woman is screaming in pain, she must be a criminal.
This is manslaughter, at the very minimum. Charges need to be laid.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@aimai: A real fear. Here in Cali, you can butcher as many patients as they can load up on the table and no one will say a word, but let one person accuse you of overprescribing, the DEA will come kicking down your door and your license and career are done.
marcopolo
I live in St. Louis and have been following this story in the local paper and news. What happened to this woman was awful, and we should have a health care system that is more responsive to folks who, for whatever reason are ignored or ill-served by health care professionals due to economic/education/racial/and other factors (and there are many–if you read the source you will learn this woman was possibly mentally ill but scared and not understanding of what options were available to treat it), and are also not effective advocates for their own treatment and care in the face of that neglect. I have a great deal of sympathy (and empathy as someone who had to seek treatment at an emergency room without health insurance–it was a nightmare that required a lot of patience, assertiveness, and understanding of what was going on).
That being said, St. Mary’s Hospital did not “ignore” her. Go back and read the source article. Unless someone is lying (a possibility) they had done ultrasounds on her legs and not found blood clots. She had also visited two other hospitals in the proceeding days. According to the accounts, she did receive treatment of some way, shape or form during these visits. The fact that her symptoms persisted and worsened indicates that that treatment was cursory, insufficient or substandard. No doubt that was because she wasn’t “a paying customer with insurance,” because she was probably a difficult patient to deal with, and because as a result of that she was viewed as a problem to be solved and moved along ASAP as opposed to a patient whose illness needed to be identified & treated. That is why we need a better health care system from top to bottom.
__
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that there is more context to this than the initial post implies. I am not defending the actions of the staff at the various hospitals, not defending the actions of the police, but the more you learn about this woman’s story the more you realize that our social welfare system had been failing her (as it does a lot of poor, less educated, inarticulate folks) since at least she had had her kids taken away on endangerment charges.
__
Finally, I expect that St. Mary’s, as the last place she sought treatment before she died (and which provided substandard care and told the police she was okay for incarceration) will be the subject of a lawsuit and will pay a large settlement–which they should but which will not bring this woman back from the dead. Though perhaps it will bring about some changes in the way that emergency room staff in St. Louis deal with these kinds of patients.
daize
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): This.
Amir Khalid
@David Koch:
Keith Olbermann doesn’t strike me as a nutter. He seems more like a problem child.
jl
@jl:
Sorry, typo correction:
” But, racism, or at least racial stereotypes, and deciding someone is a ‘drug seeking profile’ person faking symptoms ARE related. “
the fugitive uterus
@DFH no.6: is it just embarrassingly simplistic of me to want to go off to some island where at least most of the inhabitants care about the well-being of the less fortunate, the bitter fruits of our society, and get away from these evil bastards and bitches?
Mnemosyne
@marcopolo:
I don’t know what the local reputation of the hospital is in St. Louis. In the Edith Rodriguez case I cited above, the hospital was nicknamed “Killer King” even before that happened because they were notorious for accidentally killing patients through incompetence. Eventually it was taken over by UCLA because the management was so bad, top to bottom.
Alison
This is just so incredibly horrifying and heartbreaking. And THIS is the kind of fucking country to right wing wants us to be? How is THIS “exceptionalism”? How can we expect other civilized societies to see us as anything more than a melting pot of hate and cruelty, and thus to look down on us rather than to admire us?
Jesus fuck. I don’t want to live in their fucking hellscape. Can’t they just use their billions to buy an island where they can go wank off to public readings of Ayn Rand and leave those of us with consciences and hearts alone?
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
@the fugitive uterus:
To want to? I don’t think so. To do it? Yeah, I think so. But we all feel that way sometimes.
gex
Killing black people is apparently legal now. And that fact trumps the law requiring that hospitals treat people.
What really frustrates me is that Lee Atwater, Paul Weyrich, Ken Mehlman, and Michael Steele can ALL go on record about how the GOP uses racist coding to sell their policies, and YET their voters will deny this to their dying breath. They don’t even know what their party is saying, they just know that they hate whichever others they are being told to hate. And the fact that the white male vote has never gone to the Democratic presidential candidate since the CRA seems to be relevant here too.
porter
Whitey must have really done ABL Vista home edition wrong at one time. Why else would she spend all her waking hours searching every corner of the innertubez searching like a lazer for any signs of racism. I don’t see what the end game is here other than just letting the hate consumer her.
If you want to find stuff you will. At any given instant there is something bad happening somewhere to someone or something. Racism will always be everywhere. If you cannot deal with that it will eat you up after awhile.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Alison: You must admit that if we’re talking viciousness, stupidity, greed, racism, bellicosity or cruelty, that America isn’t playing second fiddle to anyone these days.
gex
@fuzed: The 1% doesn’t want this. They need the 99% (minus the not real Americans) to want this. They’re doing a terrific job.
Alison
@porter: Yeah, because in order to find any instances of racism, one has to be DESPERATELY SEARCHING FOR IT in hidden corners and shit. Because it’s not like it’s been at the fucking forefront of the major news stories forfuckingever now.
Jeez, just shut the hell up. if this is the only response you have to this, you are an awful person. Flat out.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
@Alison:
I don’t think you understand how “exceptionalism” works. You don’t have to do anything. You only have to say you’re exceptional. But if you don’t say it loud enough, and often enough, or beseechingly enough, you stop being exceptional. And if you waste any time trying to be exceptional, when you should be busy telling evereybody how exceptional you are, then you also stop being exceptional. It isn’t that hard to understand. Really. You must not be too damned exceptional.
ruemara
I’ve had DVT and it terrified me. The only clue was a massively swollen leg and no pain, but an inability to walk. My heart goes out to this woman who had already suffered so much trauma and was finally, FINALLY, starting to get her mind and life together. There but the grace…
marcopolo
@Mnemosyne: Of the hospitals she was admitted to during this time period, 2 were affiliated with St. Louis University (though one of those, Cardinal Glennon, was a pediatric hospital and did not provide her with services). SLU’s hospital is ranked #2 area-wide of about 50 facilities according to US News. St. Mary’s is tied with a few others at #11. So not a bad on its face hospital.
Mnemosyne
@porter:
Huh? This has been all over the cable news in the last few days. You should probably come out of mom’s basement every once in a while if you’re this unaware of current events.
Alison
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): It’s true. By their definition, I am decidedly non-exceptional.
Thank Christ.
Cmm
@porter: ugh. The fact that you can read this article and from it only conclude that ABL obsesses too much about racism speaks volumes about you and nothing at all about her. How does that burnt out cinder you call a heart even function?
the fugitive uterus
also, as to pcip (this is the part of ACA currently in effect already), you can drop your current insurance plan to become eligible for pcip when your current insurance plan does not cover your pre-existing condition but you have to wait 6 months after cancelling your policy and then provide proof of rejection by another insurance company based on your pre-existing condition, to be eligible.
Big Wayne
@Allan:
Yeah. And aren’t there some pictures that make her seem less sympathetic? Shouldn’t we be trying to find the worst pictures of her we can?
Honestly, the conservative movement that has this country by the throat need to be destroyed — because if it isn’t, it’s going to destroy all of us. This country cannot endure half free and half teabagger.
Michael Finn
This exact scenario played out in the first season of House MD. House diagnosed himself while the hospital debated to call the police/do tests. How any nurse/doctor saw this woman as a physical threat is beyond me, she could not even stand to cause problems! Which means they called the police because she was loud/black/desperate.
different-church-lady
@porter: Wow. Just… wow.
And I say that in spite of the fact that you’ll take it as nourishment.
ant
clearly, the lesson we can all take away from this story, is that malpractice lawsuits need to regulated out of existence, ER’s shouldn’t be required to treat people that dont have insurance, and insurance companies should be able to sell across state lines.
this young lady should have gotten her medical care from a charity.
ant
oh, and derf can go fuck himself.
GregB
Sounds like this is putting Ayn Rand Care into action.
Ruckus
@Interrobang:
I have a friend with sickle cell and every time she has an attack she makes a point of getting to the hospital that knows her because otherwise it is always, she is seeking drugs, not that any other reason is even possible.
arguingwithsignposts
@different-church-lady: Daaling has changed his nym again, I see.
SuperHrefna
This just beaks my heart. That poor woman. This kind of dismissive treatment from doctors is one of my worst nightmares (I’ve had it too, but not so bad and not because of my race, but because of my history of depression) Between Anna Brown, Trayvon, the SCOTUS review of ACA and the outburst of tween racism at the Hunger Games’ Rue I have just about given up on humanity. I don’t know how I’m going to make it to November, they really are going to go insane this year, aren’t they?
danielx
Sadness competing with disgust…but you know – just taking a wild guess – wingers will say it wasn’t the fault of the ER personnel or the police. No, it was the fault of all those other poor/black/addicted people and their drug seeking tendencies who caused Ms. Brown to be profiled, and it was her own fault for not behaving nicely instead of screaming in pain. If she’d waited quietly and nicely and politely like a white, er, normal person she’d be alive today, they’ll say…
Fuck them. Because why? Because fuck them.
AndoChronic
For those who have a “bunker” mentality it’s not their problem. I would even bet that there’s a part of them that thinks they did society a favor.
DFH no.6
@the fugitive uterus:
That would be lovely, now wouldn’t it?
Unfortunately, the “fuck you, I’ve got mine; devil take the hindmost” mindset persists in abundance within our fair species. It’s with us always.
I don’t understand it – I mean, after nearly six decades I still really can not grasp how or why anyone thinks this way, and thus ends up as a conservative – but they are, probably, roughly half the population.
LanceThruster
I know what that screaming in pain part was about. I went to the emergency room for what turned out to be a kidney stone.
The first 3 hours on the gurney, the pain went from a 5 or 6 to a 7 (10 being the highest). The last 45 minutes it went from a 7 to an 8 or 9. I wanted them to knock me out and could not control my involuntary thrashing.
LanceThruster
@LanceThruster: Btw, my black co-worker said I should have started screaming within the first 3 hours as soon as the pain started to escalate.
As a midde aged white man, I couldn’t help agreeing with her and felt that probably would have helped me get quicker attention (despite the fact that they said the delay was because of a gunshot wound victim).
Omnes Omnibus
@porter: Wow. That is what you took from this post? And you then chose to comment? Seriously? You have issues. Serious issues.
Nate Dawg
Her symptoms are somewhat hallmarks of a drug-seeking person. That said, doctors have the responsibility to treat her, and certainly not MAKE HER WORSE OFF.
I know several recent medical school graduates, and while they certainly believe the addiction-as-disease model, they couldn’t care less about treating or helping drug addicts, whom they regularly come into contact with during hospital rotation.
It’s a sad state of affairs, and we need to direct our resources at treating these people rather than locking them up and killing them.
Ajay
Unfortunately this isnt newsworthy for our elite media. I am sure things like this happen every day somewhere but not even local media will pick it up. For them, things like this destroys all that is good about our culture.
FlipYrWhig
Black people getting health care too easily is the core of opposition to so-called “Obamacare.” I doubt that conservatives hearing this story would think twice about its obvious awfulness. It’s exactly what they want to happen: can’t afford it, too bad, just go in a corner and die and spare the rest of us the bill. I’m not exaggerating.
porter
@Alison: Which is basically what I said so what the fuck is your point other than to flail your arms and get all twitchy angry birds?
atlasfugged
Conservatives almost unanimously believe that healthcare should not be considered a right. Some have even questioned the legitimacy and practicality of EMTALA, whether it is an infringement of personal liberty and state sovereignty because hospitals and thus, indirectly, other healthcare consumers must pay for the emergency medical care of those who cannot afford it. Now that the ACA seems to be on the ropes in the Supreme Court, some conservatives have turned their attention to arguments against EMTALA. Anna Brown’s death is a glimpse of what the healthcare system would look like, if the conservative ideal were ever to come to pass.
Ronzoni Rigatoni
@beltane:”I have zero medical training but I know that limb pain is a symptom of a blood clot.”
Been there. You are exactly right. And even with my BC/BS FEP insurance I hadda insist they do a sonogram on the ol’ Lady before they released her. Pain and blue legs. Halperin allergy. She woulda died in my car on the way home.
FUKSA MATTER WITH THESE PEOPLE???!
joel hanes
Hard to believe, after a hundred comments, that no one has brought up the key question, the crux :
Was she wearing a hoodie ?
Tone in DC
@porter:
DIAF. As soon as possible.
porter
@Mnemosyne: …and tomorrow there will be some other story of something bad happening to someone else and all of you will be “look….shiny”.
Unless you are willing to stick with this story for years if need be what’s the point. You people cannot even remember what you were outraged over last week.
Haven’t heard a peep out of anyone about Komen. Are you still following that and organizing boycotts and contacting companies? Come on be honest. I’ll bet 3/4 of you already forgot about that until I mentioned it.
And what about the Limbaugh boycott. Still holding peoples nose to the grindstone on that.
It’s pathetic how you all can act so concerned with truth and justice one minute and just move right the fuck on as soon as the next shiny object comes along and the people who are affected directly by this are left to fend for themselves. You should take a good long hard look in the mirror and ask yourselves some of these questions the next time you want to get all passionate about some big injustice in the news.
arguingwithsignposts
@porter:
something something, speck, something, mote.
different-church-lady
@porter: In other words, your only talent is being an asshole on the internet. We understand. We understand.
Zaftig Amazon
@ Horrendo Slapp
You might want to read the book God is Red, by Vine Deloria. As an ex-practicing Christian, it gave me a lot of answers, after I had been clotheslined by my “brothers in faith.” It has some pretty astute observations as to why some of the most merciless people on the planet call themselves Christians.
Mike in NC
Added Porter to the pie filter just to see if it still works.
different-church-lady
@Mike in NC: The pie filter never worked. And it never will.
Kathy in St. Louis
I’ve had blood clots three separate times…The first time it really wasn’t treated very well. However, there were several doctors trying to figure out what the hell was going on, and they finally did. It’s a crash emergency situation, in which a person really isn’t supposed to even be moved around. I would think that with an injury to the ankle, leg pain, ahd her homeless situation, somebody would have given her a break and admitted her just to be sure.
The only difference between her situation and mine is that I was a white lady with good insurance. This poor woman died because she was poor.
arguingwithsignposts
As someone who’s worked in ER’s, and also sat in the waiting rooms with sick children, can I just ask that we come up with a better system? Seriously, there is no reason for someone to sit for six hours in a waiting room, and get charged for the privilege while doctors fill out paperwork.
bootsy
Fuck. Don’t know what to say else. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, ABL. And I mean it. But, Fuck.
porter
@Mike in NC: Ah yes, here come the delicate flower pie people who don’t understand the irony and inherent insecurity of announcing their pie filter activity.
The best part is I can make fun of them and they cannot respond without me pointing and laughing some more.
It gets even better though. All I gotta do is call Coles dog a stupid mangy mutt and I need to change my handle again which makes the whole pie thing pretty much useless anyways.
Such fun pointing out peoples idiocy to them and getting showered in love. I do so enjoy my groupies.
Ruckus
@arguingwithsignposts:
I once went blind for about 15 minutes while at an out of town event. After my sight came back(and yes I was totally freaked out) I went to the local ER. I sat for 1 1/2 hr out front, was taken to a room by a nurse who did a 2 minute intake, waited for 2 hrs in the exam room went to the nurses station to just let them know I was still there and was told they would get to me asap. Two hrs later I walked out of the exam room to find all the Dr and nurses having a break, laughing etc. I told them I was leaving because obviously what ever caused me to go blind was not that important. They told me I had to check out/sign a waver to leave. I was very in-eloquent in my answer as I walked out. The kicker is that I had insurance but the hospital still sent me a bill. I called and asked them how big a law suit did I need to file to get them to tear up the bill. Never heard from them again.
Our great medical care is not always that good. With the right insurance it can be good but not always even then. We don’t have to wait for the conservatards to take over, dying of poverty(and bigotry) is already the norm in this country
ABL
actually, yes. and as for komen? komen is bleeding executives and now asking the govt. for money. oh, and there’s my team uterati wiki project which has about 200 members now crowd-sourcing info about anti-repro rights legislation.
just because you’re sitting on the internet changing your handle as frequently as you change your underwear just so you can gripe at me, all the while likely doing jackshit of any value doesn’t mean everyone is. some of us are actually activists. you should try it. either that, or just shut the fuck up.
Karen
If conservatives want to kill poor people (I’d say poor black people in this case but I’m sure they want to kill poor people, regardless of the race) then they should make euthanasia legal. This way the bodies can be disposed of in a sterile manner.
mclaren
This is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been predicting as our broken medical-industrial complex collapses and disintegrates. Of course, no one gives a shit because the person who died is A) a woman and B) black.
But very soon, the people who will be hauled out of hospital waiting rooms and dragged into police cars to die screaming in agony will be white and male. And then the shit will really hit the fan.
At that point, hospitals will burn, and they’ll have to call out the national guard.
Ruckus
Any one willing to be this big an Asshole right up front, that’s rare.
FlipYrWhig
@Karen: Euthanasia is scary Big Gummint overreach. They believe in voluntary self-euthanasia. Because, liberty, that’s why.
Chris Johnson
@beltane:
I do have medical training, and you’re correct. Severe leg pain in a woman of that age has deep venous thrombosis at the top of the differential diagnosis list.
different-church-lady
@porter: Well, at least you own your trolling, I can say that much for you.
The question remains though: what’s the thrill in it for you?
Karen
@Chris Johnson:
I had a DVT in 2001 and one of the only differences between me and Anna Brown is that I have insurance. If not for those two differences I could have been Anna Brown.
KS in MA
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): That was eloquent. Thank you.
mclaren
And you can bet your ass the ignorant incompetent doctor who certified this desperately ill woman as “healthy enough for jail” will never have his license revoked and will never be fined a penny.
Trakker
Anna Brown, I’m sorry. You deserved better. You died so young, younger than my son, younger than my daughters. I wish you could know how many people felt your pain…but, sadly, too late. We’ll keep trying to make our country better, Anna, because it hurts so fucking bad to read how cruelly we treat the poor.
Cain
She was a pretty thing wasn’t she? My heart goes out to her. She deserved better in life.
AndoChronic
It’s pretty obvious that porter is only projecting his own inactiveness and insecurities onto perfect strangers. I’m sure he gets immediate satisfaction from doing so, it’s like a drug. Porter’s technique is by far easier than actually doing or dedicating your life and work to help defend justice and/ or basic human needs and dignity. However, to a “self-loathing” addict this doesn’t matter because their personal “importance” fix is only a few keystrokes away. Textbook, next.
Provider_UNE
@ABL:
just because you’re sitting on the internet changing your handle as frequently as you change your underwear…
Point of order: i am pretty sure that toomuch credit has been dispensed. It is highly likely that this character changes his name more often than he changes underoo’s.
.
debbie
I speak from experience when I say it’s mazing how often it’s Catholic hospitals are the least compassionate.
David
“Just in case the past three weeks of the Trayvon Martin affair hasn’t demonstrated exactly how invaluable black lives are to some people, Anna Brown should cement the notion.”
You don’t know what “invaluable” means. I think the word you’re looking for is “valueless.”
Randal Gamino
How would you like it if someone you haven’t seen since grade school showed up at your funeral and summed up your life with tidbits from 50 years ago? It’s fine that you shared your anecdote here, but don’t summarily declare Saabs to be terribly designed and only a “footnote” in history.