They Play Cards, He Dies

Health Watch

In North Carolina, a mental patient died. Not big news now is it, but then it seems that this patient died, while attending professional care givers, Nurses, were a bit busy having a good round of cards. Yeah, you read that right. This guy was left in a chair for about 22 hours, so the story claims, without anyone bothering to feed him, or let him go to the bathroom even.

Video showed hospital staff watching television and playing cards while Sabock was in the same room. One technician hugged and kissed another staff member and appeared to be dancing. (source - CBS News)

It amazes me really, at how these things seem to be becoming more common place. I don’t understand people. Seriously why do you take a job as a Nurse, go through all that training, then ignore your obligations? And let’s be honest here, this isn’t about one bad apple either. It is about a Hospital administration that fudged records too, that had several staff who could have helped, ignore the needs of this patient.

I haven’t seen this degree of abuse, but from my own experiences with Hospital Staff, I seriously wonder if this isn’t just the tip of the iceberg? I mean how can anyone be a Nurse, and fail to show common sense in dealing with patients. I know from my own experience, that they use the excuse of being too busy, of being overworked, but I have to honestly say, that is utter BULL.

If you have time to watch television, to dance around, or to play cards, you have the time necessary to check on the patients under your care. You have time to see if they ate their food, you have time to see if they are responsive or not. This isn’t rocket science, and yet the Government Agency responsible is simply giving the facility, a State Facility by the way, two weeks to come up with a plan on how to prevent future incidents.

I have a plan, doesn’t take me two weeks either to come up with it.

FIRE THE BASTARDS WHO WERE ON DUTY, CHARGE THEM WITH CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE LEADING TO DEATH.

Bet that once you do that once or twice, the rest of those Facilities will suddenly be doing a lot better at caring for their patients, than they are now. I mean isn’t it time that these people became responsible for their actions? Why is it that they blame poor administration, poor working conditions? Maybe some of that is true, but you know what, even if all they got was a dollar a day, they agreed to it. They took the job, they knew the pay, they knew what the hours were and how many patients they had to deal with. So let’s cut the crap, and start doing the job one chose to do.

Ian @ August 22, 2008