7/14/2008

Everything thats wrong with US health care


It was determined that Esmin Green, the Jamaican immigrant whose final moments of life lying on a hospital floor were caught on a surveilance tape, died of a blood clot.

From CNN:

Green's autopsy reveals that she died from pulmonary thromboemboli -- blood clots that formed in her legs and eventually made their way into her lungs, according to Ellen Borakove, the medical examiner's spokeswoman. The clots came from deep vein thrombosis, which complicated Green's chronic paranoid schizophrenia.

Many people afflicted with deep vein thrombosis are unaware they have the condition, but symptoms including pain or swelling in the leg or shortness of breath.

Drugs that stop the clots from forming can help and can also prevent existing clots from growing larger. Doctors recommend that people with deep vein thrombosis avoid long periods of inactivity and frequently exercise their legs during long trips.

After the security videos were released, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which oversees the hospital, said it was "shocked and distressed by this situation. It is clear that some of our employees failed to act based on our compassionate standards of care."


I bet when the Green family wins their lawsuit against the hospital, they are really going to feel shocked and distressed.

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1 Comments:

At Monday, July 14, 2008 1:10:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I haven't seen any reporting on whether or not Ms. Green was given an antipsychotic when she arrived at the ER, but since she doesn't appear at all agitated in the video until her collapse, she almost certainly was given something to produce that state. Every story I've seen points to "inactivity" as the cause of her fatal deep vein thrombosis, but it can in fact be caused by some antipsychotics (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/957182.stm). Basically, it looks like she was forced into the hospital against her will and killed there.

 

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