Discussion: Veteran Dies At VA Hospital Cafeteria While Waiting For Ambulance

Discussion for article #224665

Why did Obama block that ambulance?

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Well, he died but at least protocol was followed, which I’m sure is a comfort to his grieving family.

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To be fair - as an RN - people die in hospitals all the time, sometimes, even when they’re already in the ER.

That said, the 911/Code Blue policy should probably be reviewed. Not saying that would have saved him, however.

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Where are the Three Stooges and a gurney when you need them?

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Well, alert the media. Someone died waiting for an ambulance.
That has NEVER HAPPENED EVER BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE (except for when it does, all the time. Especially when the For-Profit hospital refuses to admit the patient because they have no insurance and they die while being bounced from hospital to hospital.)
Total. Non. Story.
Guy has heart attack and dies. Gee that never happens except under OBAMACARE (which doesn’t apply to the VA anyway.)
What Ambulance service was it? Where was the closest Ambulance? Who dispatched the Ambulance (likely the Police 911 operator)? from where?

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Protocol, smotocol - this is an astounding lack of commonsense and decency.

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Yeah they do and why is this news at TPM? This was probably a private ambulance service???

Pathetic use of TPM space. I will not be renewing my Prime membership for sure. Not worth it and am getting sick of stupid stories and click bait headlines

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And TPM continues to slide toward the journalistic equivalent of ambulance chasing…

Way to feed the narrative, guys.

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I play 50+ Senior Softball here in Houston.
A league of nearly 400 in four divisions.
We play a 50 game season April-October.

Twice this season thus far (since April) we’ve had 2 players collapse with heart attacks on or adjacent to the fields.
As we have a contingent of Houston Firefighters who compete in one of the divisions-- several years back we purchased 2 AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators)-- and our HFD guys do an extensive training session at the start of each season.

On both occasions while waiting for EMTs to arrive (usually 10-15mins) we have a chart we follow-- along with the audible instructions from the AED-- and we’ve twice been able to save those players who collapsed.

One EMT who was at both events was overheard to have said: ‘You guys did it again!’
Those EMTs have also noted that if another of us does go down-- that other than doing so in an ER-- we might as well be at the ballpark.

While it might have been 30mins till the ambulance arrived?
I’d like to know at what point after collapsing-- timewise-- did he perish?

Point being that it doesn’t matter this vet was 500yds from the ER.
Unless a trained group or individual treated him in the cafeteria for the cause of his demise-- it may not have mattered.

There’s more to this than has been reported above.

jw1

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Really why I didn’t do it. Sooooo much half-assed garbage.

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That’s awesome, and the best outcome. Note, though, that AEDs only work to reset a funky heart rhythm. They don’t work to restart a heart that has stopped beating (asystole). The scenario of a flatline, and calls to “CLEAR!” and the paddles coming out are a dramatic fiction. Good old CPR is the course of action then.

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I agree. $50 down the drain.

At least 100,000 people die every year of hospital errors, and that doesn’t include these types of SNAFUs. But, because of the pile-on nature of our political media coverage, every error at every VA in the country will be covered as though it is more evidence of Obama presidenting while being black. I’m just bracing myself.

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In the last year and a half of his life, the VA treated my father, a Korean War vet, in a long-term care facility in Stony Brook, Long Island.
He had emphysema and colorectal cancer which left him with a colostomy.
He was a man for whom dignity and self esteem were paramount and they treated him with the kind of respect that would befit a Lord and for that, I will be eternally grateful.
I know, for certain, that he was helped to pass on, as he wanted, and I found myself consoling the doctor and his nurses as they cried in my arms.
Nobody can tell me that these are not dedicated people who do what they can and suffer when it’s just not enough because God had other plans and I deplore the kind of politics that make a story like this somehow relevant.

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Why didn’t he call 911?
Every time I call the VA, the “greeting” tells me that in the event of an emergency, hang up and dial 911.
Unless I was in the hospital for a medical appointment, I would automatically dial 911. He was one half of a mile away form the emergency room.
Unless he was in a position to walk to the ER, he needed some other way to get there… So, call for an ambulance and take your chances.
If you are in the cafeteria, barber shop, US Post Office, Patriot Shop or any other concession, the people there are not emergency medical personnel.
At least, the representative did not tell him to hang up and dial 911. The VA made the call for him.

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So sorry to hear about your loss. I agree, every healthcare system has it’s rough patches. My own dad got stellar care at a VA clinic in his final years. The fact that this has become a media freak show and one more reason to beat up on Obama is quite disgraceful. Unfortunately, the “greatest generation” doesn’t seem to speak up about this, and they are the biggest users of the VA system, as well as the DOD system.

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The hospital folks were likely waiting for the guy to fill out paperwork after he died. Much like the injury lawyers we all hear the ads for. " If you have been injured or died from this drug please call our office and we’ll get right on it."

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The right will blame Obama. The left will blame the VA. Will anyone take the hospital staff to task for neglecting to pick up the fellow (there were several staff standing around) and carrying him the short distance to the ER. Or alternatively, he was already at the hospital. Were there no doctors close by? At the hospital where I spent my career we held drills for just such an emergency. We had “crash carts” with emergency gear available in most areas of the facility placed there just for situations like this.
This is shameful.

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