Mom of Three Dies in ER After Being Ignored for 45 Minutes

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Edith Rodriguez, 43, had already been to the emergency room at L.A.-based Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor hospital twice on May 8, complaining of severe stomach pain, when police officers found her outside and brought her into the ER again.

The head nurse on duty reportedly told the officers, "Thanks a lot. This is her third time here."

The nurse put Rodriguez in a wheelchair and told her to wait, allegedly adding, "You have already been seen, and there’s nothing we can do."

The mom of three had told the officers outside that she thought a gallstone had "burst," causing intense pain in her abdomen. She had an ER discharge slip with her that instructed her to return to the ER should she experience further pain, vomiting, or nausea.

According to numerous press reports, Rodriguez was then ignored for more than 45 minutes, even after falling to the floor in pain and vomiting blood. In a closed-circuit TV tape, a janitor is seen mopping the floor around her body as she writhes in pain.

911 tapes recently released to The Los Angeles Times have reignited indignation over Rodriguez’s treatment at King-Harbor hospital. Jose Prado, the boyfriend of Edith Rodriguez, as well as an unidentified patient at the hospital, both called 911 to plead for help only to be rebuffed.

Prado apparently first tried to talk to hospital staff and then the on-site LAPD office at the hospital before calling 911. He asked that paramedics be called to transport Rodriguez to another hospital because she was not getting helped.

"I’m in the emergency room, my wife is dying, and the nurses don’t want to help her out," said Prado to the 911 dispatcher on the newly released tapes. After explaining that she was vomiting blood, the dispatcher told him that because they were already at a hospital, paramedics could not be sent.

Eight minutes later, a female patient also called 911 to ask for help for Rodriguez. "There’s a lady on the ground here in the emergency room at Martin Luther King and they are overlooking her, they claim she’s been discharged, and she’s definitely sick and there’s a guy that’s ignoring her." The dispatcher told the caller that it was not a medical emergency and that she should talk to staff at the hospital. "I cannot do anything for you for the quality of the hospital. It is not an emergency, ma’am."

Responded the caller, "You’re not here to see how they are treating her." Despite the woman’s pleas, the 911 dispatcher would not send an ambulance to a patient who was already at a hospital and insisted several times that it was not an emergency. "May God strike you too for acting the way you just acted," said the caller.

After the police officers at the hospital ran a background check on Rodriguez, they discovered a no-bail warrant for her arrest. They came into the ER to take her into police custody, after assuring her boyfriend that she would receive medical care. After wheeling Rodriguez outside to a squad car, they found her unresponsive when requesting she get into the car. They were unable to revive her, and she was pronounced dead shortly after.

The cause of death was found to be a perforated bowel, which can cause excruciating abdominal pain and vomiting. Medical experts claim that the condition could have been successfully treated had it been caught earlier.

After reviewing the case and the 911 tapes, Steven Roller, a captain at the station which supervises the 911 calls made that night, said it was confusing to the 911 operators to be contacted from a hospital emergency room. "What’s real confusing…was that she was at a medical facility. That poses some real quandaries," said Roller to reporters. He also stated that the demeanor of the second dispatcher was not appropriate, and that the employee had received counseling for his behavior.

Roller added that the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t currently have a policy in place for 911 calls placed from a medical facility.

The director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Dr. Bruce Chernof called the incident "inexcusable," and King-Harbor hospital chief medical officer Dr. Roger Peeks has been placed on "ordered absence."

L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yarovslosky was deeply upset by seeing the closed-circuit tape of the waiting room that night, and can’t believe that nobody would help Rodriguez. "I hope it’s a lesson to the rest of the community that when somebody’s in trouble and the appropriate reaction is not to turn your back on that somebody," said Yarovslosky to the press.

Edith Rodriguez’s sister Marcela Sanchez, told reporters that her sister was the kind of person who would have helped another suffering fellow human being. "She would have given her shoes to somebody with no shoes," said Sanchez.

Rodriguez’s 24-year-old daughter Christina told the press that knowing the circumstances of her mother’s death was difficult. "It just makes it so much harder to grieve. It’s so painful," she said.

Added Rodriguez’s son Edmundo, 25, "We know we have the responsibility to make sure justice is done for our mother," he told reporters. "We just don’t want this to happen again."