By T. Reuther Santa Monica
In response to your article on 9-year-old Ariel Astrup (“A tough break for injured children,” March 1, page 1), who screamed in the emergency room for eight hours before getting what’s supposed to be “professional care”: I can relate to the anger and frustrations her parents, Aaron and Anita Astrup, must have gone through.
Last year, I had a similar situation happen at St. John’s, while caring for my 82-year-old step-father with Alzheimer’s and lack of mobility, due to a series of strokes. Last summer, “Bud” was taken via ambulance to St. John’s because he couldn’t breathe and was losing consciousness. As the paramedics wheeled him in, we waited to be admitted and evaluated. No one, no “professional team” came to observe my stepfather as he waited in the emergency doorway, out in the hallway, for almost an hour. This was an emergency and no one was tending to this dependent, little old man’s needs.
The paramedics weren’t too happy either. Legally, para-medics cannot be “dismissed” until the patient is admitted. So there we stood, waiting for someone to, at least, look like they were doing something. I couldn’t get any straight answers regarding the delay.
Within a few hours, they ran some tests and couldn’t find anything wrong, aside from giving him oxygen to help him breathe a little easier. The hospital “policy” is to release the patient. Can you imagine? Luckily, I am a certified lifeguard and if anything more serious should occur, I knew I could hold down the fort until EMT arrived. What about all these other elderly people/patients/victims who don’t have someone to simply be at their side “just in case”?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 8, 2007. Read the original PDF.