CAUTION: Improved Conditions

September 7, 2005 was a bad night for me. I didn't know it at the time, but decades of heavy drinking had given me a large number of separate tiny bleeding ulcers in my lower esophagus and upper GI tract. On 7 Sept, these small perforations united and I began hemorrhaging. I was losing blood by the mouthful.

I knew I was dying but I wasn't sure I cared. I did some truly last-minute thinking and I decided I didn't want to die, so I drove myself to the ER late at night.
I got lucky.
I walked into the ER and vomited blood on the floor, an act for which I gained immediate attention, medical and otherwise. The medical attention saved my life. I was later informed that I had anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so to live at the time of my arrival- without immediate care, I wouldn't have lived to be outraged about this story:

LOS ANGELES—A woman who lay bleeding on the emergency room floor of a troubled inner-city hospital died after 911 dispatchers refused to contact paramedics or an ambulance to take her to another facility, newly released tapes of the emergency calls reveal.

Relatives said Rodriguez was bleeding from the mouth and writhing in pain for 45 minutes while she was at a hospital waiting area. Experts have said she could have survived had she been treated early enough.

If you are vomiting blood, your life is in serious jeopardy. ER personnel should know that and I'm sure that they did. What they lacked was concern and any semblance of human empathy. The staff and the 911 dispatcher display a sociopathic indifference to human life and suffering:

"I'm in the emergency room. My wife is dying and the nurses don't want to help her out," Rodriguez's boyfriend, Jose Prado, is heard saying in Spanish through an interpreter on the tapes.

The man was calling 911 from the ER. It wasn't a frivolous call. He was unable to get help , which prompted a bystander to place a second 911 call. The police finally responded by driving to the hospital and arresting Ms. Rodriguez for a parole violation. They put her in a wheelchair and started to remove her from the hospital, presumably to jail, but she died before they could leave the hospital .

The woman went to the ER , in obvious peril for her life, and wound up dying in police custody.

UPDATE: Here is a more detailed account from the LA Times.

The Hospital, (King-Harbor), had already been cited by the Federal government. The Feds don't seem to realize that if you are puking blood, you don't have 23 days to wait for the medical staff to rehab itself:

Federal inspectors last week said emergency room patients were in "immediate jeopardy" of harm or death, and King-Harbor was given 23 days to shape up or risk losing federal funding.

Dr. Bruce Chernof, director of the county Department of Health Services, which oversees the facility, has called Rodriguez's death "inexcusable" and said it was "important to understand that this was fundamentally a failure of caring." He has said conditions are improving, though.

Conditions are improving? The police just arrested a dying woman in the Emergency Room. She didn't survive the visit.
What was it like before the 'improvement'?

"Conditions are improving"...hmmm. That sounds familiar. Where have else we heard that sentiment expressed?

"In the 83 days since I announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq, we have made progress, steady progress, in restoring hope in a nation beaten down by decades of tyranny."
-George W. Bush
July 7, 2003. 2003. 2003.

"The plan sets out ambitious timetables and clear benchmarks to measure progress and practical methods for achieving results. Rebuilding Iraq will require a sustained commitment. "

-same asshole, same speech

What happened to the clear benchmarks? I thought BushCo was against putting timetables on American withdrawal from Iraq. In fact, Bush recently vetoed a withdrawal timetable.
BushCo argues that timetables encourage terrorists...we've seen a massive upswing in terrorism since Bush gushed about his "timetables" in 2003, so perhaps they are correct.

Bush in 2003:

"America has assumed great responsibilities for Iraq's future. Yet, we do not bear these responsibilities alone. Nineteen nations are providing more than 13,000 troops to help stabilize Iraq. And additional forces will soon arise -- arrive. More than two dozen nations have pledged funds that will go directly towards relief and reconstruction efforts. Every day we are renovating schools for the new school year. We're restoring the damaged water, electrical and communication systems. And when we introduce a new Iraqi currency later this year, it will be the first time in 12 years that the whole country is using the same currency.

Our greatest ally in the vital work of stabilizing and rebuilding a democratic and prosperous Iraq is the Iraqi people, themselves. Our goal is to turn over authority to Iraqis as quickly as possible. Coalition authorities are training Iraqi police forces to help patrol Iraqi cities and villages."

47 months later:

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 (IPS) - The U.S. Coalition is the principal cause of Iraq's current woes, charges a report released Wednesday by the Global Policy Forum (GPF), a New York-based watchdog group.

Since the March 2003 invasion, the U.S.-British occupation of Iraq has "utterly failed to bring peace, prosperity and democracy, as originally advertised," says the report, entitled "War and Occupation in Iraq".

"The United Nations and the international community must end the complicity of silence and they must vigorously address the Iraq crisis," it says.

Produced by GPF and 29 international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the report was released to coincide with U.N. Security Council consultations on the Iraq problem. The 117-page report assesses conditions in the country, especially the responsibility of the U.S.-led Coalition, for violations of international law and concludes with recommendations for action, including a speedy withdrawal of Coalition forces.

It covers areas such as destruction of cultural heritage, unlawful detention, killing and torture of civilians, displacement, corruption and fraud, attacks on cities and long-term military bases.

"This is ongoing, is not under control, and is something the Coalition is saying it is doing under mandate of the U.N. Security Council," James Paul, GPF's executive director, told reporters Wednesday.

'Progress is being made.'

'Conditions are improving. '

Lovely epitaphs, those.